THE  SOCIAL  MESSAGE  OF 
THE  MODERN  PULPIT 


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Roman  Catholic  and  Protestant  Bible  Compared 

Edited  by  RCT.  MELANCTHON  WILLIAM  JACOBUS 

Introduction  to  the  Life  of  Christ 

By  Rev.  WILLIAM  BANCROFT  HILL 

Old  Testament  Criticism  and  the  Christian  Church 

By  Prof.  JOHN  EDGAR  MCFADYEN,  M.A.,  B.A. 

The  Social  Message  of  the  Modern  Pulpit 

By  RCY.  CHARLES  REYNOLDS  BROWN 

The  Ideal  of  Jesus 

A  Study  of  Christian  Missions 

Sixty  Years  with  the  Bible 

By  Prof.  WILLIAM  NEWTON  CLARKE,  D.D. 

The  Bible,  Its  Origin  and  Nature 

By  Prof.  MARCUS  DODS,  D.D. 

The  Origin  and  Permanent  Value  of  the  Old  Testament 

By  Prof.  CHARLES  FOSTER  KENT,  Ph.D. 

The  Gospel  and  the  Church 

By  ALFRED  LOISY 

The  Apostolic  Age 

By  Prof.  JAMES  HARDY  ROPHS 

Outlines  of  the  Life  of  Christ 

By  Prof.  W.  SANDAY,  D.D.,  L.L.D.,  Litt.D. 

The  Passing  Protestantism  and  Coming  Catholicism 

By  Rer.   NEWMAN   SMYTH,   D.D. 

A  Model  Superintendent 

By  Rer.  H.  CLAY  TRUMBULL 

Sermons  to  Young  Men 
The  Story  of  the  Psalms 

By    Dr.    HENRY    VAN    DYKE 

John  the  Loyal 

Epochs  in  the  Life  of  Paul 

Epochs  in  the  Life  of  Jesus 

By  Prof.  A.  T.  ROBERTSON,  D.D. 

The  Faith  of  a  Modern  Protestant 

By   Prof.     WlLHELM    BOUSSET 

God's  Choice  of  Men 

By  Rev.  WILLIAM  R.  RICHARDS,  D.D. 

Theology  and  Human  Problems 

By  Prof.  EUGENE  w.  LYMAN,  D.D. 

Thoughts  for  Every-Day  Living 

By  Dr.   MALTBIB  DAVENPORT  BABCOCK,  D.D. 

Faith  and  Sight 

By  Rer.  WILLIAM  P.  MERRILL 

The  Sources  of  Religious  Insight 

By  Prof.  JOSIAH  ROYCB 


fHE  SOCIAL  MESSAGE  OF 
THE  MODERN  PULPIT 


BY 
CHAELES  REYNOLDS   BROWN 

DEAN  OF  THE  TALE  DIVINITY  SCHOOL 


CHARLES   SCRIBNER'S   SONS 
NEW  YORK  .  1915 


Copyright,  1906,  by 
CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S  SONS 


TO 


1561210 


PREFACE 


WHEN  the  invitation  to  deliver  the  Lyman  Beecher 
Lectures  at  Yale  University  for  the  year  1905-6 
came  to  me,  I  very  naturally,  in  the  selection  of  a 
theme,  consulted  the  main  lines  of  interest  in  my  own 
work  as  a  Christian  minister.  I  have  been  for  some 
years  especially  interested  in  expository  preaching 
as  a  suitable  and  profitable  method  of  presenting  re- 
ligious truth  to  a  congregation,  and  in  the  application 
of  the  principles  of  the  Gospel  to  social  conditions. 
After  consultation  with  the  Dean  of  the  Faculty,  it 
seemed  to  me  possible  to  combine  both  of  these  in- 
terests in  the  course  of  lectures  which  I  was  asked  to 
give. 

I  have  accordingly  embodied  in  this  course  a  brief 
study  of  the  Book  of  Exodus,  dealing  with  it  entirely 
on  the  sociological  side,  both  as  an  illustration  of  this 
method  of  relating  ancient  Scripture  to  modern  life 
and  for  the  sake  of  the  real  content  of  the  book  as 
it  bears  upon  "  the  social  message  of  the  modern 
pulpit,"  which  is  my  main  theme. 

vii 


Viii  PREFACE 

I  am  deeply  indebted  to  many  older  and  wiser 
men  who  have  studied  and  worked  in  the  field  of  in- 
terest here  traversed,  a  number  of  whom  I  have 
quoted  in  this  volume.  I  also  wish  to  express  my 
personal  gratitude  to  two  laymen  in  my  own  congre- 
gation— Mr.  Charles  Z.  Merritt  and  Mr.  Warren 
Olney,  Jr. — who  were  so  kind  as  to  read  the  lectures 
before  they  were  delivered,  and  to  give  me  the  benefit 
of  many  helpful  criticisms  and  valuable  suggestions. 

In  the  course  of  the  discussion  I  have  naturally 
touched  upon  many  controverted  points.  It  is  need- 
less to  say  that  no  responsibility  whatever  for  the 
opinions  expressed  attaches  to  the  members  of  the 
faculty  of  the  Yale  Divinity  School,  although  noth- 
ing could  have  exceeded  their  kindness  and  courtesy 
to  me  in  connection  with  the  service  which  I  had 
been  asked  to  render. 

It  is  my  own  conviction  that  the  Christian  min- 
ister in  these  days  occupies  a  position  where  rare 
privilege  and  serious  responsibility  are  mingled  in 
an  unusual  way — the  average  pastor  is  neither  a 
capitalist  nor  a  wage  earner,  neither  an  employer  nor 
an  employe,  as  those  terms  are  currently  used;  and 
he  is  therefore  in  a  position  where  he  ought  to  be 
able  to  render  a  genuine  service  to  all  those  parties 
in  interest  whose  personal  fortunes  are  more  directly 
involved  in  the  problems  here  discussed  than  are  his 


PREFACE  ix 

own.  If  in  any  slight  degree  I  have  in  these  lectures 
made  plainer  this  opportunity  for  usefulness,  or 
brought  out  more  clearly  the  obligation  resting  upon 
all  who  have  it  in  their  power  to  aid  in  any  wise  in 
the  solution  of  these  problems,  one  of  the  important 
ends  aimed  at  in  the  course  will  have  been  secured. 

In  sending  the  lectures  out  in  book  form,  I  do  it 
in  the  hope  that,  while  they  were  originally  given 
in  a  divinity  school,  they  may  come  into  the  hands 
of  many  laymen  interested,  as  they  are  at  present, 
in  all  these  social  questions. 

CHAELES  REYNOLDS  BEOWN. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.     THE  NEED  OF  MORAL  LEADERSHIP  IN  SOCIAL 

EFFORT 1 

II.    THE  SCRIPTURAL  BASIS  FOR  A  SOCIAL  MES- 
SAGE      34 

III.  THE  OPPRESSION  OF  A  PEOPLE 70 

IV.  THE  CALL  OF  AN  INDUSTRIAL  DELIVERER    .  109 

V.    RADICAL  CHANGE  IN  THE  SOCIAL  ENVIRON- 
MENT     145 

VI.    THE  TRAINING  IN  INDUSTRIAL  FREEDOM  .    .  185 

VII.    THE  NEW  SOCIAL  ORDER 218 

VIII.    THE  BEST  LINES  OF  APPROACH 256 


THE    SOCIAL    MESSAGE    OF    THE 
MODERN    PULPIT 

CHAPTER   I 

THE  NEED  OF  MORAL  LEADERSHIP  IN  SOCIAL  EFFORT 

IN  almost  every  period  of  the  world's  life  there  are 
certain  movements  of  thought  and  feeling  which  may 
be  called  glacial.  They  are  widespread;  they  can- 
not be  successfully  resisted ;  they  leave  their  mark 
upon  the  face  of  the  whole  region  they  traverse.  The 
teachers  of  religion  at  such  a  time  will  not  gain  their 
highest  effectiveness  by  acting  in  utter  independence 
of  such  movements — in  so  far  as  these  movements 
embody  wholesome  elements  and  are  in  any  wise 
headed  toward  the  main  goal,  the  true  prophets  of 
the  period  will  act  with  them.  If  religion  is  to  make 
itself  widely  and  profoundly  useful,  it  must  ally  it- 
self openly  and  intelligently  with  those  common,  fun- 
damental interests  which  God  in  His  Providence  or 
the  Holy  Spirit  in  His  supreme  guidance,  has 
brought  to  the  fore. 

1 


2      SOCIAL  MESSAGE   OF  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

The  time-spirit  and  the  Holy  Spirit  are  not  as  a 
rule  identical,  but  they  are  not  necessarily  antagonis- 
tic, nor  are  they  likely  to  be  altogether  independent. 
When  we  take  into  consideration  the  deeper  and  more 
permanent  elements  in  the  time-spirit,  we  shall  more 
commonly  find  its  relation  to  the  Holy  Spirit  to  be 
one  which  is  subordinate  but  harmonious.  The  true 
prophet,  therefore,  will  actively  seek  the  guidance  of 
that  Spirit  of  Truth  which  is  everlasting,  and  he  will 
also  study  the  signs  of  the  times — study  them,  it  is 
to  be  hoped,  with  more  discernment  than  was  mani- 
fested by  those  superficial  observers  referred  to  in 
the  Scriptures  who  were  only  enabled  by  their  out- 
look upon  "  the  signs  of  the  times  "  to  make  a  shrewd 
guess  as  to  to-morrow's  weather.  The  prophet's  gen- 
uine knowledge  of  his  own  time  will  serve  to  make 
his  utterances  pertinent  and  practical,  while  his  abid- 
ing fellowship  with  that  Spirit  of  Truth,  which  is 
from  everlasting  to  everlasting,  will  give  them  endur- 
ing strength  and  vitality. 

Now  the  social  interest  which  occupies  so  large 
a  part  of  the  world's  mind  to-day,  and  the  social  sym- 
pathy which  has  such  a  profound  hold  upon  its  heart, 
and  the  social  energy  which  absorbs  so  much  of  the 
strength  of  its  right  arm,  constitute,  in  my  judgment, 
just  such  a  movement  for  the  times  on  which  we  have 
fallen.  Thirty  years  ago  physical  science  was  to  the 


MORAL   LEADERSHIP   IN  SOCIAL  EFFORT          3 

fore  in  the  popular  interest.  The  Athenians  of  that 
day  spent  the  major  part  of  their  time  either  in  tell- 
ing or  in  hearing  "  some  new  thing  "  in  geology  or 
biology  or  astronomy.  The  pulpits  of  that  day  were 
unnecessarily  and  unprofitably  busy  in  adjusting 
matters  between  Moses  and  Darwin,  or  in  bringing 
about  labored  "  reconciliations  "  between  science  and 
religion.  Happily  all  this  is  now  changed.  The 
work  of  physical  science  is  still  carried  forward,  but 
the  dominant  interest  to-day  is  fixed  upon  the  organ- 
ized life  of  men.  The  mood  of  the  hour  is  one  of 
fraternal  sympathy,  and  it  behooves  the  prophets  of 
religion  not  only  to  harness  these  warm,  strong, 
widely  diffused  feelings  to  useful  lines  of  effort,  but 
to  discover  their  deeper  relations  and  to  ally  them 
with  the  spiritual  aspiration  of  the  race.  A  resolute 
public  sentiment  has  taken  up  certain  problems  to 
which  other  generations  have  been  to  a  great  extent 
Indifferent;  it  has  set  them  out  in  bold  relief  to  be 
seen,  to  be  discussed,  to  be  solved !  And  if  religion 
is  to  be  made  deeply  and  widely  effective  in  these 
days,  it  is  imperative  that  this  absorbing  social  in- 
terest should  be  recognized,  utilized,  and  brought 
within  the  power  of  a  noble  consecration. 

I  esteem  this  duty  so  fundamental  that  I  should 
not  hesitate  to  say  that  the  willingness  and  the  abil- 
ity of  its  ministers  to  serve  as  useful  leaders  in  this 


4      SOCIAL  MESSAGE   OF  THE  MODERN  PULPIT 

important  service  is  the  supreme  need  of  the  modern 
church.  I  am  not  unmindful  of  other  needs.  It 
is  important  that  there  should  be  some  definite  re- 
statement of  certain  essential  truths  and  a  strong  con- 
viction regarding  their  saving  influence.  It  is  im- 
portant that  in  many  communions  there  should  be 
some  readjustment  of  polity,  making  room  for  the 
ever-growing  spirit  of  democracy  within  an  organi- 
zation sufficiently  close  knit  for  effective  service.  It 
is  important  that  this  luxury-loving  age  should  be 
brought  up  to  a  more  generous  consecration  of  its 
means  to  the  enlarging  demands  of  that  benevolent 
work  which  the  modern  emphasis  on  philanthropic 
effort  has  inaugurated.  It  is  important  that  there 
should  be  kindled,  or  rekindled,  a  genuine  passion 
for  souls  which  shall  produce  not  a  perfunctory 
nor  a  hysterical  but  a  true  evangelism  in  all  the 
churches.  It  is  important  that  there  should  be  a 
deeper  spiritual  life  pervading  all  the  religious  bodies, 
cordially  relating  itself  to  the  moods  and  the  methods 
of  these  modern  times.  In  all  that  I  have  to  say 
in  this  series  of  lectures,  I  do  not  for  a  moment  ignore 
or  minimize  any  of  these  needs.  But  I  believe  the 
supreme  need  of  the  hour  is  for  men  who  have  the 
wisdom,  the  courage,  and  the  conscience  requisite  to 
guide  the  Christian  forces  of  the  country  in  making 
thorough  application  of  the  principles  of  the  Gospel 


MORAL  LEADERSHIP   IN  SOCIAL  EFFORT         5 

of  Jesus  Christ  to  the  conditions  of  every-day  life. 
The  Christianity  of  ecclesiastical  organization  is  one 
manifestation  of  the  Spirit,  but  those  other  manifes- 
tations, where  religion  is  trying  to  function  in  that 
nobler  quality  of  life  which  shall  permeate  those 
activities  called  secular,  are  also  the  work  of  the 
same  Lord.  All  these  worketh  that  one  and  the  self- 
same Spirit,  dividing  the  total  task  of  a  redeemed 
world  to  each  man  severally  as  He  will.  And  it  is 
imperative  that  the  ministers  of  religion  should  fur- 
nish competent  moral  leadership  to  this  vast  under- 
taking. 

You  have  noticed  in  your  studies  here  that  both 
the  Old  Testament  and  the  New  Testament  churches 
began  their  work  by  making  brave  attempts  to  realize 
the  love  and  purpose  of  God  in  a  reorganization  of 
their  industrial  life.  They  seriously  endeavored  to 
bring  it  into  harmony  with  what  they  believed  to  be 
His  will.  The  Hebrew  Church,  in  so  far  as  it  came 
to  have  a  definite  place  of  worship  and  a  system  of 
ordinances,  began  with  the  deliverance  of  the  chil- 
dren of  Israel  from  the  slavery  of  Egypt.  Out  of 
the  bush  which  burned  with  a  mysterious  fire  the 
founder  of  that  church  heard  the  divine  voice,  and 
it  spoke  mainly  of  the  social  needs  of  the  people. 
"  I  have  seen  the  affliction  of  my  people  which  are 
in  Egypt  and  I  have  heard  their  cry  by  reason  of 


6      SOCIAL  MESSAGE   OF  THE  MODERN   PULPIT 

their  taskmasters  for  I  know  their  sorrows.  And  I 
am  come  down  to  deliver  them.  .  .  .  Come  now, 
therefore  I  will  send  thee  unto  Pharaoh  that  thou 
mayest  bring  forth  my  people  the  children  of  Israel 
out  of  Egypt." 

The  whole  background  of  the  political  and  moral 
unfolding  of  the  Hebrew  race  in  those  early  times 
lay  in  that  industrial  deliverance  and  in  the  reor- 
ganization of  their  associated  life.  The  supreme 
motive  on  which  obedience  to  the  Ten  Command- 
ments was  urged  was  that  same  sociological  fact — 
"  I  am  the  Lord  thy  God  which  brought  thee  out  of 
the  land  of  Egypt,  out  of  the  house  of  bondage.  Thou 
shalt  have  no  other  gods  before  Me."  And  down 
through  all  the  years  of  their  unfolding  history  their 
poets  and  their  prophets  were  continually  stimulating 
the  people  to  moral  obedience  and  spiritual  aspira- 
tion by  the  memory  of  that  industrial  deliverance 
wrought  on  their  behalf  in  the  land  of  Egypt.  The 
Hebrew  Church  entered  upon  its  useful  career 
through  a  notable  experience  in  social  readjustment. 

The  organization  of  the  second  church,  the  Chris- 
tian Church,  was  accompanied  by  a  similar  effort  at 
social  reconstruction.  It  came  to  pass  in  those  days 
that  they  were  all  filled  with  the  Holy  Ghost.  They 
began  with  one  accord  to  speak  with  other  tongues 
and  to  act  from  other  motives  than  those  of  self-in- 


MORAL  LEADERSHIP   IN   SOCIAL  EFFORT         7 

terest.  They  held  their  possessions  in  trust  for  the 
common  good,  no  man  saying  that  anything  was  ex- 
clusively his  own.  They  parted  their  possessions  as 
every  man  had  need,  so  that  there  was  none  among 
them  that  lacked. 

It  does  not  diminish  the  significance  of  this  social 
movement  in  the  early  Christian  Church  to  say  that, 
unlike  certain  modern  schemes,  it  was  a  voluntary 
communism;  or  that  it  was  tried  in  a  small  commu- 
nity of  high-minded  people,  all  filled  with  the  Spirit ; 
or  that  they  wrought  with  a  simple  rather  than  with 
an  intricate  industrial  organization.  It  does  not  dis- 
credit it  to  say  that  it  was  undertaken  in  the  expecta- 
tion that  the  whole  regime  under  which  they  were 
living  would  soon  be  terminated  by  the  visible  return 
of  Christ,  or  to  say  that  it  does  not  seem  to  have  been 
a  financial  success.  All  these  comments  and  criti- 
cisms upon  the  undertaking  I  accept  and  believe. 
But  however  different  the  conditions  of  their  life 
from  our  own,  and  whatever  may  have  been  their 
lack  of  economic  wisdom,  that  brave  attempt  of  theirs 
does  make  plain  this  fact,  that  people  filled  with  the 
Holy  Ghost  regard  it  as  imperative  that  they  should 
at  once  strive  to  make  their  industrial  relations,  their 
ordinary  use  of  their  property,  and  their  whole  at- 
titude toward  the  less  capable  members  of  society 
a  direct  expression  of  the  will  of  God  concerning 


8      SOCIAL  MESSAGE   OF  THE  MODERN   PULPIT 

them,  and  of  the  spirit  of  Jesus  Christ  now  resident 
within  their  hearts.  Both  the  Jewish  and  the  Chris- 
tian churches  at  the  very  outset  thus  esteemed  the 
thorough  application  of  the  social  principles  in  the 
divine  message  they  had  received  a  primary  and  a 
fundamental  duty. 

I  believe  we  touch  here  what  is  the  supreme  need 
of  the  modern  church  if  it  is  to  be  the  highest  agent  of 
the  divine  will  in  the  establishment  of  that  kingdom 
which  is  to  include  and  consecrate  all  these  common 
interests.  People  to-day  cannot  run  away  from  in- 
justice and  oppression  as  the  ancient  Israelites  did 
— there  is  no  Canaan  for  them  to  go  to,  since  even 
the  wide  spaces  of  our  own  great  West  have  been 
so  completely  appropriated  by  private  ownership; 
they  must  have  it  out  with  Pharaoh  right  here.  They 
cannot  separate  themselves  into  small  communities 
after  the  fashion  of  the  early  Christians  at  Jerusa- 
lem, or  of  the  Shakers  or  Euskinites,  in  order  to 
practise  communism.  This  is  simply  impossible  for 
the  many ;  and  those  who  do  withdraw  only  leave  the 
rest  of  us  to  fight  the  battle  without  their  aid.  We 
cannot,  if  we  would,  take  the  wings  of  the  dove  and 
fly  away  to  be  at  rest,  in  any  sort  of  peaceful  re- 
treat— we  can  only  stay  where  we  are  and  pray  that 
the  Spirit,  which  is  like  a  dove,  shall  come  upon  us 
in  the  very  thick  of  these  domestic  and  social,  these 


MORAL   LEADERSHIP   IN  SOCIAL  EFFORT         9 

industrial  and  political  problems,  teaching  us  con- 
sideration for  one  another's  interests,  and  guiding  us 
in  those  courses  of  action  which  make  for  the  realiza- 
tion of  the  kingdom  of  God  on  earth.  And  the  readi- 
ness and  fitness  of  the  prophets  of  the  faith  to  serve 
as  moral  leaders  in  this  high  undertaking  I  regard 
as  one  of  the  most  important  elements  in  their  min- 
isterial equipment. 

This  form  of  service  is  demanded  by  the  churches 
in  order  to  make  religion  widely  effective  among  all 
classes  of  men,  thus  promoting  a  genuine  revival  of 
interest  and  of  power  in  the  land.  Every  great  re- 
vival in  the  past  has  had  some  one  dominant  idea 
which  in  its  essence  embodied  a  strong  demand  for 
personal  righteousness.  In  the  Great  Awakening 
under  Jonathan  Edwards  it  was  divine  sovereignty. 
God  is  King :  "  Thou  shalt  worship  the  Lord  thy 
God,  and  him  only  shalt  thou  serve."  In  the  revival 
under  John  Wesley  it  was  human  freedom.  Men 
can  vote  in  the  great  election :  "  Whosoever  will  may 
come."  In  the  revival  under  Charles  G.  Finney  it 
was  personal  responsibility.  Men  make  or  mar  their 
own  destinies :  "  The  soul  that  sinneth  it  shall  die, 
but  he  that  doeth  that  which  is  lawful  and  right  shall 
save  his  soul  alive."  In  the  revival  under  Dwight 
L.  Moody  it  was  the  divine  mercy.  There  is  an  in- 
finite compassion  for  all  our  moral  failure :  "  God 


10    SOCIAL  MESSAGE  OF  THE  MODERN  PULPIT 

so  loved  the  world,  that  he  gave  his  only  begotten 
son,  that  whosoever  believeth  on  him  should  not  per- 
ish, but  have  everlasting  life."  In  the  next  great 
revival  which  will  quicken  the  country  into  new  re- 
ligious life,  I  believe  the  dominant  note  will  be  that 
of  social  responsibility,  and  the  two  main  texts  of 
the  movement  will  be :  "  We  are  all  members  one 
of  another,"  and  "  One  is  our  Master,  even  Christ, 
and  all  we  are  brethren."  That  revival,  when  it 
comes,  will,  in  my  judgment,  embody  the  strongest 
demand  for  personal  righteousness  the  world  has  ever 
felt — it  will  lay  hold  upon  that  great  word  of  Christ 
in  Gethsemane,  "  For  their  sakes,  I  sanctify,  my- 
self!" 

It  does  not  seem  possible  to-day  to  kindle  the 
interest  of  the  more  thoughtful  people  to  any  con- 
siderable degree,  or  to  make  the  church  life  really 
aggressive,  or  to  arouse  deeply  the  hearts  of  the 
ministers  themselves,  except  as  the  religious  efforts 
proposed  have  steadily  in  view  something  wider  than 
individual  peace  and  paradise.  It  is  almost  impos- 
sible to  stir  the  individual  outside  the  church  or  to 
stimulate  the  efforts  of  others  on  his  behalf,  so  long 
as  the  issue  is  largely  one  of  personal  security,  pres- 
ent or  eternal.  But  once  let  that  larger  note  come 
in  which  Jesus  struck  at  the  opening  of  his  ministry, 
"  Repent,  for  the  kingdom  of  heaven  is  at  hand  " — 


MORAL  LEADERSHIP   IN  SOCIAL  EFFORT       11 

about  face,  because  a  better  order  awaits  its  realiza- 
tion through  the  efforts  of  renewed  men;  once  let 
the  modern  herald  begin  to  cry,  '  The  Spirit  of  the 
Lord  is  upon  me  because  he  hath  anointed  me  to 
preach  good  tidings  to  the  poor;  he  hath  sent  me  to 
bind  up  the  brokenhearted,  to  preach  deliverance  to 
the  captives  and  to  set  at  liberty  them  that  are 
bruised,  and  to  usher  in  the  acceptable  year  of  the 
Lord  ' ;  once  let  that  larger  note  come  in  strongly 
and  distinctly — and  there  is  sure  to  be  an  immediate 
kindling  of  interest. 

Ministers  of  religion  are  sent  out  to  be  fishers  of 
men.  But  when  they  use  exclusively  those  methods 
which  lay  the  sole  or  even  the  main  emphasis  upon 
individual  regeneration,  leaving  social  problems  to 
be  worked  out  sometime,  somewhere,  quite  apart  from 
the  inspiration  and  guidance  of  the  Christian  Church, 
I  think  you  will  bear  me  witness  that  in  these  days 
they  do  not  land  the  fish  to  any  considerable  extent ; 
and  in  certain  classes  of  society  they  do  not  land 
them  at  all. 

It  is  easy  to  lay  the  blame  for  this  failure  on 
others.  It  is  easy  to  say  that  such  methods  have  been 
owned  and  blessed  of  God;  they  worked  once  and 
would  work  now,  were  it  not  for  the  hard  and  un- 
circumcised  hearts  of  these  twentieth-century  fish. 
It  is  easy  to  say  that  the  age  is  altogether  material 


12    SOCIAL  MESSAGE  OF  THE  MODERN   PULPIT 

in  its  aims;  that  it  lacks  high  aspirations,  and  is 
ungodly  in  the  extreme — it  has  always  been  easier 
to  call  men  hard  names  than  to  win  them  to  higher 
levels  of  experience.  It  is  easy  to  denounce  roundly 
the  pleasure-seekers  and  the  social  agitators  who,  in 
their  different  ways,  have  done  much  to  draw  away 
the  attention  of  thousands  of  people  from  the  Chris- 
tian Church — it  is  especially  easy  to  do  this  from  the 
pulpit,  because  the  people  denounced  are  not  usually 
there  to  hear.  But  none  of  these  excuses  for  the 
failure  of  the  minister  to  gain  a  hearing  for,  and  the 
acceptance  of,  his  message  ever  satisfies  the  heart  of 
a  man  who  is  hungry  to  win  other  men  to  Christ. 

The  trite  criticism  that  while  Peter  converted 
three  thousand  men  with  one  sermon  it  now  takes, 
according  to  the  painful  figures  in  the  denomina- 
tional year-books,  almost  three  thousand  sermons  to 
convert  one  man,  is  hurled  at  preachers  who  are 
already  humiliated  by  their  apparent  lack  of  effec- 
tiveness. But  where  in  all  God's  world  has  any  min- 
ister in  the  last  ten  years  ever  preached  to  any 
congregation  that  had  in  it  three  thousand  uncon- 
verted men?  The  great  evangelists  have  all  found 
that  when  they  spoke  in  the  largest  halls  and  churches 
to  be  had,  these  places  were  for  the  main  part  filled 
up  with  professing  Christians.  And  if  the  Chris- 
tians had  all  stayed  away,  we  feel  no  assurance  that 


MORAL  LEADERSHIP  IN  SOCIAL  EFFORT       13 

those  who  are  not  Christians  would  have  occupied 
the  seats. 

Yet  all  the  while  there  were  gatherings  in  all  the 
large  cities,  where  three  thousand  men  who  were  not 
professing  Christians  did  come  together  for  the  con- 
sideration of  problems  which  bear  vitally  on  moral 
and  spiritual  life.  Whenever  I  see  or  hear  of  such 
an  assembly,  I  feel  that  as  fishers  of  men  we  ought 
to  be  able  to  approach  that  stream  of  modern  life, 
which  runs  bank-full  and  swift,  with  such  tackle  and 
such  bait,  with  such  sympathetic  knowledge  of  those 
interests,  and  such  ability  to  speak  the  language  in 
which  they  were  born,  that  we,  too,  could  take  those 
men  in  larger  numbers,  to  the  glory  and  honor  of 
Christ.  And  the  ability  of  the  modern  minister  to 
do  just  that  is  a  fundamental  need  if  we  are  to  make ' 
religion  widely  effective  and  thus  promote  a  genuine 
revival  which  shall  touch  all  classes  of  society. 

This  type  of  leadership,  in  the  work  of  applying 
the  social  principles  of  the  Gospel,  is  also  demanded 
in  view  of  the  fact  that  the  pathway  to  spiritual  life 
for  great  masses  of  people  is  blocked  for  lack  of  just 
this.  It  was  a  sombre  word  which  the  author  of  the 
Book  of  Exodus  uttered  at  one  point  in  his  story: 
"  The  Egyptians  made  the  children  of  Israel  to  serve 
with  rigor  and  they  made  their  lives  bitter  with  hard 
service.  .  .  .  And  the  Israelites  hearkened  not  unto 


]4    SOCIAL  MESSAGE   OF  THE   MODERN   PULFIT 

Moses  for  anguish  of  spirit."  The  appeal  of  the 
prophet  who  came  to  guide  them  into  the  land  of 
promise  and  into  a  higher  life  was  for  a  time  alto- 
gether unheeded  because  the  people  were  in  no  con- 
dition to  respond.  The  good  seed  fell  by  the  wayside 
and  the  rigor  of  their  industrial  condition  devoured 
it  up.  The  utter  physical  exhaustion,  the  dull,  sod- 
den nature  induced  by  years  of  cheerless  toil,  the 
lack  of  zest  for  any  but  the  coarser  gratifications  of 
the  flesh  which  brought  the  relaxation  they  craved, 
the  want  of  outlook  or  prospect,  all  these  made  the 
task  of  producing  spiritual  values  in  that  generation 
well  nigh  hopeless.  As  a  matter  of  fact  all  the  men 
of  that  generation,  except  two,  died  in  the  wilderness 
of  doubt  and  disobedience — they  "  hearkened  not 
unto  Moses  for  anguish  of  spirit  and  for  cruel 
bondage." 

And  all  this  is  not  by  any  means  mere  ancient 
history.  It  is  a  just  characterization  of  whole  sec- 
tions of  our  modern  workaday  world.  The  city  pas- 
tor finds  it  hard,  oftentimes,  to  urge  some  working- 
man  to  become  a  Christian  and  to  think  upon 
high  and  holy  themes  when  he  sees  the  house  the 
man  lives  in,  the  mill  he  works  in,  the  streets  his 
children  play  in,  and  the  general  atmosphere  in  which 
they  all  move.  It  seems  to  him  as  if  something  a 
shade  stronger  than  John  Calvin's  "  Irresistible 


MORAL  LEADERSHIP   IN   SOCIAL  EFFORT       15 

Grace  "  would  be  demanded  to  enable  such  a  man 
to  respond  with  eagerness  to  the  call  of  the  Spirit. 

If  you  will  take  the  trouble  to  go  through  the  sec- 
tion of  the  city  where  the  operatives  in  some  fac- 
tory are  housed  and  see  with  your  own  eyes  the 
actual  conditions  of  their  lives ;  if  you  will  visit  the 
homes  where  by  pressure  of  want  the  mother  is  also 
thrust  into  the  mill  with  several  of  her  young  chil- 
dren besides ;  if  you  will  stand  by  as  they  take  their 
pleasures  and  witness  their  poverty,  not  only  in 
things  material  but  in  all  the  finer  values  of  life, 
you  will  need  no  commentary  to  tell  you  the  mean- 
ing of  that  statement  in  Exodus  as  to  the  unrespon- 
siveness  of  certain  hearts  because  of  the  conditions 
of  their  toil.  The  spiritual  tragedy  which  stands 
ugly  and  bare  in  whole  sections  of  the  worker's  world 
is  the  most  awful  aspect  of  it.  With  these  thousands 
of  weary,  beaten,  and  baffled  men  and  women  in 
mind,  it  seems  like  a  cruel  joke  when  we  get  to- 
gether in  our  ministerial  associations  and  read 
fancy  little  papers  on  "  How  to  Reach  the  Masses," 
deciding,  perhaps,  that  it  can  be  done  with  a  little 
more  music,  or  a  bit  more  of  advertising,  or  with 
more  hand-shaking  at  the  door  of  the  church.  Thou- 
sands of  them  hearken  not  to  the  prophet  "  for  an- 
guish of  spirit  and  for  cruel  bondage  " !  The  appli- 
cation of  Christian  principles  to  social  conditions  is 


16    SOCIAL  MESSAGE  OF  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

therefore  demanded  because  their  pathway  to  spirit- 
ual life  is  blocked  for  lack  of  it. 

This  type  of  leadership  is  also  needed  by  the 
church,  because  that  deeper  spiritual  life  which  it 
craves  for  itself  can  best  be  realized  through  such 
wisely  directed  social  service.  Spiritual  life,  I  take 
it,  is  knowing  and  enjoying  the  presence  of  the  Spirit 
of  God  within  the  heart.  There  may  be  many  ways 
of  gaining  this  experience — there  are  differences  of 
administration  for  different  individuals  and  for  dif- 
ferent eras — by  the  same  Spirit.  The  dominant 
mood  of  this  present  time,  referred  to  above,  indi- 
cates, to  my  mind,  that  the  most  direct  pathway  to 
spirituality  for  the  majority  of  Christians  to-day  lies 
through  rightly  ordered  social  service. 

We  would  all  agree,  no  doubt,  that  the  three  main 
manifestations  which  God  has  made  of  Himself  thus 
far  are  these:  He  revealed  Himself  in  the  world 
about  us — this  i*  the  vrork  of  God.  He  revealed  Him- 
self in  literature,  and  we  have  in  our  Bible  what 
is  called  distinctively  "  the  word  of  God."  He  re- 
vealed Himself  in  a  personal  life,  and  we  have  in 
Jesus  of  Nazareth  y  the  Son  of  God."  To-day  He- 
is  revealing  Himself  mainly  in  the  associated  life  of 
men,  so  that  there  will  come  at  last,  as  the  fourth 
i;reat  manifestation,  the  "  kingdom  "  or  "  the  house- 
hold of  God."  The  work  of  god,  the  word  of  God, 


MORAL   LEADERSHIP   IN  SOCIAL  EFFORT       17 

the  Son  of  God,  and  the  kingdom  of  God — through 
these  we  are  to  see  the  material,  the  literary,  the  per- 
sonal, and  the  corporate  expressions  of  the  life  of 
God  in  the  world. 

Now  if  the  mind  of  the  Spirit  is  in  any  wise  re- 
flected in  the  dominant  interest  of  great  numbers  of 
clear-headed,  pure-hearted  people  at  the  present  time, 
we  may  believe  that,  while  we  are  gratefully  to  ac- 
cept and  utilize  all  that  God  has  shown  us  of  Himself 
in  His  work  and  in  His  word  and  in  His  Son,  we  are, 
with  the  strength  thus  gained,  to  press  forward  to  the 
fuller  realization  of  His  presence  and  power  among 
us  by  our  cooperation  with  Him  for  the  establish- 
ment of  His  kingdom.  We  are  to  find  and  know  Him, 
we  are  to  love  and  serve  Him,  in  the  very  gaining 
of  that  better  order  which  is  to  stand  as  the  fairest 
expression  of  His  will  the  world  has  yet  seen — men 
organized  and  acting  together  in  the  spirit  of 
Christ!  Such  a  consummation  will  be  the  realiza- 
tion of  that  great  prayer  in  Gethsemane — that  we 
should  all  be  one,  in  the  spirit  of  mutual  considera- 
tion and  helpfulness,  even  as  He  and  the  Father  are 
Qne.  It  will  be,  in  finite  measure,  the  supreme  mani- 
festation of  the  entirety  of  God's  life,  for  His  Spirit 
and  purpose  will  stand  most  fully  revealed  in  those 
broad  areas  of  a  redeemed  social  life.  And  thus  to 
serve  wisely  and  faithfully  the  interests  of  that  com- 


18    SOCIAL  MESSAGE  OF  THE  MODERN  PULPIT 

ing  kingdom,  aiding  in  ite  advance,  is  indeed  to  know 
the  living  God  in  a  deeper  spiritual  life. 

The  prophet  of  old  sounded  this  note.  You  will 
recall  the  word  of  Jeremiah:  "  He  judged  the  cause 
of  the  poor  and  needy;  then  it  was  well  with  him. 
i  Was  not  this  to  know  Me,  saith  the  Lord  ?  "  Social 
effort  is  here  denned  and  approved  as  the  straight 
road  into  knowing  God — knowing  Him  not  by  the 
intellectual  mastery  of  His  attributes  but  by  sharing 
in  His  power  and  wisdom  and  love  through  useful 
service.  Social  effort  ought  always  to  be  so  outlined 
by  the  teachers  of  religion  and  so  entered  upon  by  the 
followers  of  Christ  that  it  will  be  no  more  a  gross 
fight  for  material  advantage,  nor  a  mere  temporary 
relief  of  pressing  want.  It  ought  rather  to  be  the 
religion  of  One  who  said,  "  Inasmuch  as  ye  did  it 
unto  one  of  the  least  of  these,"  rising  into  larger 
reality  in  the  every-day  life  of  the  world.  '  Judge 
the  cause  of  the  poor  and  the  needy,'  the  Spirit  is 
saying  unto  the  churches,  l  then  it  shall  be  well  with 
thee  for  thus  ye  shall  come  to  know  me.'  In  doing 
just  that  in  the  spirit  of  Christ,  the  people  in  the 
churches  will  know  more  perfectly  that  Lord  whose 
tender  interest  is  over  and  within  all  those  who  need 
this  humane  service. 

I  shall  always  remember  a  serious  talk  with  an 
intelligent  Christian  layman  in  an  Eastern  city.    His 


MORAL  LEADERSHIP  IN  SOCIAL  EFFORT       19 

father  and  his  grandfather  had  been  Congregational 
ministers,  and  he  was  himself  an  active  member  of 
one  of  our  churches  there.  He  enjoyed  regularly  and 
gratefully  the  ministrations  of  one  of  the  most  spir- 
itually minded  pastors  in  that  city.  He  was  telling 
me  of  the  Christian  work  in  which  he  had  been  en- 
gaged the  winter  before.  He  had  been  working  with 
a  group  of  men  to  compel  certain  landlords  to 
make  the  tenement-houses  they  owned  sanitary.  To- 
gether these  men  had  also  been  securing  the  enforce- 
ment of  the  law  against  certain  infamous  dens  of 
vice  which  were  a  constant  menace  to  the  morals  of 
the  poor  boys  and  girls  who  lived  in  the  vicinity. 
They  had  been  accomplishing  something  in  securing 
employment  for  men  out  of  work,  for  it  was  during 
the  era  of  hard  times.  They  had  succeeded  in  se- 
curing, through  a  free  market,  a  cheaper  and  more 
wholesome  food  supply  for  the  poor.  They  had  been 
cooperating  in  the  work  of  a  certain  Social  Settle- 
ment which  supervises  a  number  of  boys'  clubs  and 
sewing-schools  and  working-men's  resorts,  bringing 
cheer  and  hope  to  hundreds  of  neglected  lives.  He 
had  found  a  deep  satisfaction  in  the  part  he  had  taken 
in  it  all,  and  as  he  concluded  his  narrative,  he  leaned 
across  the  table  and  said  to  me  with  the  utmost  ear- 
nestness :  "  You  know  I  get  nearer  my  Lord  in  work- 
ing with  those  struggling  people  down  there  than  I 


20    SOCIAL  MESSAGE  OF  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

ever  do  in  our  church  prayer-meeting."  He  was  a 
man  who  could  and  did  take  an  effective  hand  in  the 
church  prayer-meeting,  too,  but  he  had  found  his  way 
into  a  deeper  realization  of  the  divine  Spirit  in  his 
unselfish  service  to  the  needs  of  that  section  of  the 
city,  than  in  the  usual  conventional  efforts  after  spir- 
ituality. Inasmuch  as  ye  have  sympathetically  and 
helpfully  known  the  least  of  these,  ye  have  known 
Him! 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  best  men  in  the  churches 
to-day  are  not  trying  to  gain  that  deeper  experience 
of  the  divine  life  which  they  crave  by  any  mystical 
contemplation  of  the  wounds  of  Christ  until,  like  the 
saint  of  old,  they  have  red  spots  in  their  hands ;  nor 
are  they  seeking  it  by  endless  striving  for  exact  and 
final  statements  in  dogma  nor  by  painstaking  atten- 
tion to  the  minute  details  of  ritual  or  polity,  nor  by 
fiery  struggles  for  personal  peace  and  safety.  They 
are  rather  seeking  the  deeper  realization  of  the  Spirit 
of  God  through  those  activities  which  have  to  do  with 
making  good  the  claim,  "  We  are  all  members  one 
of  another,"  thus  coming  into  deeper  fellowship  with 
the  Father  of  the  whole  household.  When  Chris- 
tian people  rightly  relate  their  efforts  for  the  estab- 
lishment of  justice,  mercy,  and  peace  in  the  asso- 
ciated life  of  men,  to  the  purpose  and  Spirit  of  God, 
they  will  gain,  in  generous  measure,  that  sane,  warm 


MORAL  LEADERSHIP  IN  SOCIAL  EFFORT       21 

and  reliable  spirituality  which  many  current  attempts 
are  failing  to  secure. 

If  the  churches  should  allow  the  trades-union  to 
absorb  the  main  part  of  the  social  energy  of  the  com- 
munity and  the  fraternal  lodge  to  absorb  the  main 
part  of  its  social  sympathy,  we  should  lose  the  whole 
divine  treasure  hidden  in  that  fertile  field.  But  if 
we  can,  changing  the  figure,  recognize  the  presence 
of  that  social  interest  which  knocks  steadily  at  the 
door  of  the  school  and  the  magazine,  the  senate  cham- 
ber and  the  church,  as  a  divine  presence;  if  we  can 
hear  its  voice  and  interpret  it  aright;  and  if,  still 
further,  we  can  open  the  door,  cordially  admitting 
it  to  our  fellowship  and  indicating  our  readiness  to 
go  with  it  on  errands  of  useful  service,  we  shall  then 
sup  indeed  with  the  divine  Author  of  that  social  in- 
terest and  He  with  us,  in  a  fuller  realization  of  the 
kingdom  of  God  on  earth. 

I  have  spoken  thus  far  of  the  necessity  which  is, 
I  believe,  upon  the  churches,  but  the  need  of  compe- 
tent leadership  is  no  less  great  from  the  point  of  view 
of  those  whose  main  interest  is  material  betterment. 
There  is  a  disposition  in  certain  quarters  to  carry 
on  the  struggle  as  though  enlightened  and  far-seeing 
self-interest  would  at  last  be  sufficient  to  secure  the 
well-being  of  the  contending  classes.  And  to  those 
men  who  have  lived  under  the  unquestioned  reign 


22    SOCIAL  MESSAGE  OF  THE  MODERN  PULPIT 

of  the  Manchester  School,  there  is  a  great  need  that 
the  law  of  Christ  should  be  preached  in  place  of  that 
iron  law  of  wages.  So  long  as  certain  employers, 
consulting  solely  their  own  interest,  will  pay  the 
lowest  wages  which  men  can  be  induced  to  take;  so 
long  as  they  will  discharge  men  with  families  when 
they  find  they  can  get  boys  and  girls  cheaper,  with- 
out ever  asking  themselves  what  is  to  become  of  those 
families;  so  long  as  they  continue  to  attract  to  the 
neighborhood  where  their  industries  are  located  great 
numbers  of  cheap  laborers,  as  was  done  by  the  coal 
operators  in  Pennsylvania,  knowing  that  they,  by 
the  weight  of  their  competing  necessities,  will  force 
down  wages — so  long  as  such  narrow  and  immoral 
self-interest  holds  undisputed  sway,  there  can  be  no 
permanent  advance  made  toward  the  realization  of 
the  kingdom  of  God,  or  of  that  industrial  stability 
even,  which  is  an  important  element  in  the  kingdom 
of  God. 

And  it  is  equally  true  that  wherever  union  men 
resort  to  terrorism  and  violence  in  order  to  coerce 
those  who  differ  with  them  in  their  industrial  meth- 
ods; wherever  they  insist  upon  having  the  final  de- 
cision as  to  the  discharge  of  employes  for  the  pay- 
ment of  whose  wages  other  men  are  responsible; 
wherever  they  demand  that  factories,  which  the 
brains  and  enterprise  and  capital  of  other  men  have 


MORAL  LEADERSHIP   IN   SOCIAL  EFFORT       23 

equipped  and  set  in  motion,  shall  be  virtually  con- 
trolled by  themselves  alone ;  wherever  they  insist  that 
no  distinction  shall  be  made  in  pay  between  efficient 
and  inefficient  workmen ;  wherever  they  unduly  close 
the  avenue  to  honorable  industry  for  apprentices 
wishing  to  learn  a  trade;  wherever  they  break  con- 
tracts made  and  signed  in  times  of  peace,  because  of 
a  wish  to  coerce  some  other  set  of  employers  through 
a  sympathetic  strike — they  by  their  own  acts  also 
retard  the  solution  of  the  grave  problem  which  rests 
heavily  upon  them  under  modern  conditions.  The 
trades-unions,  numbering  their  millions  of  members, 
have  other  millions  of  toilers  below  them,  for  whom 
they  often  seem  to  care  not  at  all,  and  whose  struggle 
they  make  more  difficult.  In  this  imperfect  outlook 
the  union  men  themselves  often  become  narrow,  self- 
ish, and  despotic. 

From  both  camps,  then,  there  comes  up  a  cry  for 
a  larger  habit  of  mind  which  shall  look  steadily,  not 
merely  upon  its  own  things,  but  also  upon  the  things 
of  others.  Some  men  must  be  brought  to  see  that 
it  would  not  advance  the  general  prosperity  to  make 
employes  sole  masters  of  the  entire  situation,  thus 
compelling  capital  and  skill  to  take  what  might  be 
allowed  them.  The  very  fact  that  the  ability  and 
enterprise  of  others  are  in  control  might  serve  to  in- 
dicate to  the  manual  laborers  that  it  is  more  than 


24    SOCIAL  MESSAGE   OF  THE   MODERN  PULPIT 

possible  that  the  same  capacity  which  has  given  to 
its  possessor  that  preeminence,  may  also  possess  some 
particular  efficiency  for  the  conduct  of  the  enterprise. 
And  some  other  men  must  be  made  to  face  the  fact 
that  no  rich  man  ever  becomes  rich  without  the  co- 
operation of  many  other  men  who  give  the  best  of 
their  lives  to  the  enterprise  he  has  organized;  and 
that  all  talk  about  "  a  man's  right  to  manage  his  own 
business  in  his  own  way,"  regardless  of  the  bearing 
of  the  industrial  conditions  maintained  upon  the 
health,  the  happiness,  and  the  morals  of  these  other 
men  whose  very  lives  are  bound  up  in  that  bundle 
of  prosperity  with  his  own,  is  both  irrational  and 
immoral.  His  right  to  purchase  labor  does  not  in- 
clude any  sort  of  right  to  purchase  the  permanent 
and  inevitable  degradation  of  the  laborer  himself. 
And  thus  to  purchase  labor  in  the  cheapest  market, 
even  though  it  does  involve  the  sure  degradation  of 
the  laborer  and  the  destruction  of  all  the  possibilities 
of  a  wholesome  family  life  for  him,  is  as  openly  im- 
moral as  murder  or  adultery. 

The  people  who  have  the  sunny  rooms  in  the  social 
structure  sometimes  fail  to  get  the  point  of  view  of 
those  whose  more  meagre  abilities  have  doomed  them 
to  the  north  side  or  possibly  to  a  dark  corner  in  the 
cellar.  These  fortunate  people  have  accustomed 
themselves  to  "  eat  the  fat  and  drink  the  sweet,"  with 


MORAL   LEADERSHIP  IN   SOCIAL  EFFORT       25 

little  or  no  disturbing  consciousness  of  the  needs  of 
those  for  whom  no  adequate  portion  has  been  pre- 
pared, until  the  existing  arrangement,  inequitable 
though  it  may  be,  seems  to  them  like  the  divine  order. 
And  because  of  this  unmindful  habit  which  springs 
out  of  that  satisfying  sense  of  comfort,  there  is  call 
for  the  prophet  to  cry  aloud  at  this  point.  It  was 
that  same  deep  sense  of  physical  comfort  on  the  part 
of  the  man  who  was  warmly  tucked  into  bed,  who 
dreaded  an  excursion  through  a  dark  house  to  the 
larder,  with  the  attendant  fear  of  waking  the  baby, 
which  led  him  to  say  to  his  needy  neighbor :  "  Trouble 
me  not;  the  door  is  now  shut,  and  my  children  are 
with  me  in  bed ;  I  cannot  rise  and  give  thee."  The 
very  contentment  bred  of  abundant  possessions  and 
a  high  degree  of  material  comfort  frequently  dulls 
the  cry  of  need  outside  and  deadens  the  sense  of 
social  responsibility  in  those  who  are  thus  wrapped 
about  with  luxury. 

That  particular  type  of  social  responsibility  which 
prompts  generous  gifts  in  charity  when  the  need  has 
become  desperate,  or  handsome  benefactions  to  homes 
and  hospitals  to  care  for  the  unhappy  people  who 
are  maimed  and  broken  in  the  battle  of  life,  or  vast 
endowments  for  public  libraries  where  the  unem- 
ployed, along  with  the  rest,  may  spend  their  vacant 
hours  more  contentedly,  or  royal  endowments  for 


26    SOCIAL  MESSAGE   OF  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

schools,  which  shall  thereby  be  tempted  at  least  to 
apologize  for  the  existing  order  and  to  speak  softly 
sometimes  regarding  social  injustice  in  the  methods 
of  accumulating  the  gigantic  fortunes  whose  bene- 
factions they  receive — that  type  of  social  responsi- 
bility may  have  some  useful  function  to  fulfil,  but 
it  does  not  reach  far  enough  to  possess  any  consider- 
able utility.  There  is  a  strong  demand  that  men 
shall  be  shown  the  moral  bearing  of  their  acts  in 
those  methods  by  which  they  accumulate  their  wealth. 
It  was  a  true  word  which  President  Roosevelt  spoke 
,  at  the  last  Harvard  Commencement.  "  It  is  far  more 
important  that  rich  men  should  conduct  their  busi- 
ness affairs  decently  than  that  they  should  spend  the 
surplus  of  their  fortunes  in  philanthropy."  When 
certain  industrial  methods  tend  constantly  to  roll  up, 
as  they  undoubtedly  do,  a  perpetual  supply  of  crip- 
ples and  paupers,  of  unemployed  and  desperate  men, 
they  cannot  surely  be  pronounced  "  decent "  by  an 
instructed  conscience.  Honest  regard  for  the  well- 
being  of  others  must  reach  back  and  deal  with  the 
causes  of  distress  more  than  with  the  results  which 
are  turned  out  at  the  other  end  of  the  system. 

The  application  of  intelligence  and  experience, 
under  the  skilful  guidance  of  our  own  Luther  Bur- 
bank,  in  California,  to  those  fields  of  effort  where 
the  natural  forces  operate  among  the  fruit  and  the 


MORAL  LEADERSHIP  IN  SOCIAL  EFFORT      27 

flowers,  has  brought  vastly  superior  returns.  This 
has  come  about  mainly  through  the  blending  of  dif- 
ferent forms  of  life  by  cross-fertilization.  A  similar 
application  of  intelligence  and  conscience  to  the  fields 
of  industrial  effort  will  be  still  more  rewarding.  If 
there  can  be  some  cross-fertilization  of  the  practical 
sagacity  of  the  men  of  affairs  who  have  done  so  much 
to  produce  this  marvellous  material  development  of 
recent  years,  with  the  spiritual  vision  and  social  sym- 
pathy of  the  prophet  and  the  seer,  it  will  mean  a 
rich  harvest  of  human  values ;  it  will  mean  an  order 
of  life  which  will  not,  on  the  one  hand,  be  sordid 
and  gross,  or,  on  the  other,  shadowy  and  unreal. 
The  nobler  order  thus  to  be  realized  would  be  indeed 
the  new  Jerusalem  descending  out  of  heaven  from 
God,  bringing  its  own  divine  method  and  spirit  with 
it,  but  resting  solidly  upon  the  earth  and  gathering 
its  materials  from  the  common  instincts  and  impulses 
of  humanity.  And  in  the  great  task  of  bringing  this 
consummation  nearer,  there  is  sore  need  of  compe- 
tent, far-seeing,  trustworthy  leaders  able  to  voice  the 
social  message  from  on  high  in  the  language  in  which 
the  age  was  born  and  with  which  it  carries  on  its 
eager  and  varied  life. 

Society  can  do  what  it  ought  to  do — this  I  believe 
because  I  believe  in  the  human  will,  finite  but  pow- 
erful. And  what  ought  to  be  will  be — this  I  believe 


28    SOCIAL  MESSAGE   OF  THE  MODERN  PULPIT 

because  I  believe  in  God,  whose  will  is  infinite  and 
all  powerful,  as  well  as  holy  and  benevolent.  And 
because  society  has  this  power  to  create  such  a  life 
as  will  genuinely  express  this  will  of  God  concerning 
it,  we  may  depend  upon  those  instincts  which  are 
resident  within  all  the  fairer  aspects  of  society  to 
respond  to  that  leadership  which  can  effectively  and 
winsomely  point  the  way.  We  are  warranted  in 
reposing  a  profound  confidence  in  these  subtle  but 
invincible  spiritual  forces  which  can  be  aroused  to 
action,  and,  when  once  aroused,  can  be  organized  and 
directed  in  such  a  way  that  all  oppression  and  injus- 
tice must  finally  give  way  before  their  resistless  ad- 
vance. 

The  feeling  that  all  the  people  who  mean  well  are 
competent  to  undertake  to  set  the  world  right  has 
largely  passed.  The  only  men  who  can  long  gain  a 
responsive  hearing  to-day  are  men  who  indicate 
clearly  that  they  have  studied  their  subject  and  that 
in  some  measure  they  are  trained  specialists  touch- 
,  ing  the  matter  immediately  in  hand.  The  very 
nature  of  these  social  problems  demands  a  high  de- 
gree of  efficiency  in  those  who  would  undertake  their 
solution.  Neither  individual  nor  social  well-being 
ever  grows  wild.  They  grow  only  as  the  right  seed 
is  sown  in  the  right  way  and  in  soil  which  has  been 
suitably  prepared  in  advance.  When  these  condi^ 


MORAL   LEADERSHIP   IN  SOCIAL  EFFORT       29 

tions  of  a  harvest  are  intelligently  met,  then,  and 
only  then,  is  it  the  will  of  God  to  give  that  increase 
of  general  well-being  which  the  hungry  heart  of  the 
world  is  craving. 

It  lies  within  the  power  of  the  American  people 
to  actually  furnish  this  necessary  efficiency  for  the 
solution  of  these  problems.  A  Benjamin's  portion  of 
the  brain  power  and  the  will  power  of  our  nation  has 
thus  far  been  given  to  the  creation  of  a  material  fab- 
ric which  clothes  the  favored  classes  in  America  with 
a  prosperity  unmatched  before  in  all  the  history  of 
the  world.  The  hour  has  certainly  come  to  now 
devote  a  larger  share  of  this  brain  power  and  will 
power  to  the  exaltation  and  the  visible  embodiment 
of  certain  spiritual  ideals  in  this  abundant  life  of 
ours.  Commercial  enterprise  has  absorbed  unduly 
the  strength  and  enthusiasm  of  our  young  manhood, 
and  now  there  is  a  call  for  these  younger  sons  of  the 
covenant  to  bring  forth  more  generously  the  moral 
leadership  which  they  are  well  able  to  furnish,  and 
to  come  up  to  the  help  of  the  Lord  against  the  mighty 
and  selfish  materialism  of  the  age. 

When  a  prominent  Christian  minister,  regarded 
as  exceedingly  conservative  in  all  his  views,  formerly 
the  pastor  of  a  large  and  wealthy  church  in  our  chief 
city,  can  write  such  words  as  these,  "  The  signs  of 
the  times  admonish  us  that  if  Christianity  is  to  avert 


30    SOCIAL  MESSAGE   OF  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

a  revolution  of  the  most  gigantic  proportions  and  the 
most  ruinous  results,  we  have  not  an  hour  to  lose  in 
assuring  the  restless  masses  that  they  have  no  better 
friends  than  the  disciples  of  Him  whose  glory  it  was 
to  preach  good  tidings  to  the  poor  and  to  lift  their 
grievous  burdens,"  it  is  surely  in  order  for  all  min- 
isters to  strive  to  see  clearly,  to  speak  sanely,  and  to 
help  actively  in  the  solution  of  these  grave  social 
problems.  In  some  way  the  people  of  our  land  must 
learn,  if  we  are  to  have  peace  and  safety,  not  only 
how  to  produce  abundantly,  but  at  the  same  time  to 
distribute  justly  and  to  consume  rationally.  The 
first  has  been  mastered  by  the  American  mind; 
the  last  two  await  a  more  truly  social  conscience 
enthroned  in  the  heart.  The  strong  and  successful 
have  learned  the  full  meaning  of  American  inde- 
pendence— they  must  now  be  brought  to  discover  the 
full  significance  of  the  obligations  which  go  with 
interdependence  in  this  close-knit  life  of  our  modern 
world.  They  must  be  brought  by  the  ministers  of 
Jesus  Christ  to  realize  that  "  the  head  cannot  say 
to  the  foot,"  the  highest  in  ability  cannot  say  to  the 
lowest,  "  I  have  no  need  of  you,"  but  that  all  are 
members  one  of  another  in  a  common  responsibility, 
in  a  general  care  of  all  for  each  and  of  each  for  all. 
The  day  has  passed  when  it  was  permissible  for 
any  man  haughtily  to  assert  his  right  "  to  run  his 


MORAL   LEADERSHIP   IN  SOCIAL  EFFORT       31 

own  business  in  his  own  way  "  or  to  spend  his  own 
money  as  he  pleased.  It  passed,  indeed,  a  long  time 
ago  from  the  Christian  point  of  view.  Ambrose,  the 
Bishop  of  Milan,  a  man  of  affairs  who  had  accumu- 
lated a  fortune  and  served  with  honor  as  governor 
of  the  province  before  he  became  a  priest,  thus  de- 
fined the  truly  Christian  attitude  away  back  in  the 
fourth  century.  "  My  own  business !  "  he  says,  echo- 
ing the  selfish  claim  of  some  man  who  had  asserted 
a  similarly  exclusive  right.  "  What  injustice  is 
there,  you  ask,  in  my  diligently  preserving  my  own, 
so  long  as  I  do  not  invade  the  property  of  others? 
Shameless  saying!  My  own!  What  is  it?  From 
what  sacred  place  hast  thou  brought  it  into  the  world  ? 
Thou  who  hast  received  the  gifts  of  God,  thinkest 
thou  that  thou  committest  no  injustice  in  keeping 
for  thyself  alone  what  would  be  the  means  of  life  to 
many  ?  It  is  the  bread  of  the  hungry  thou  keepest ; 
it  is  the  clothing  of  the  naked  thou  lockest  up; 
the  money  thou  buriest  is  the  redemption  of  the 
wretched."  The  famous  bishop  thus  voiced  for  his 
time  and  for  all  time  the  sense  of  obligation  which 
ought  to  attach  to  the  ownership  of  property,  to  the 
control  of  industrial  enterprises,  and  to  all  those 
forms  of  influence  which  bear  upon  the  welfare  of 
one's  fellows. 

We  have,  indeed,  science  enough — political,  sani- 


32    SOCIAL  MESSAGE  OP  THE  MODERN  PULPIT 

tary,  economic,  and  ethical  science — to  point  the  way 
toward  a  freeing  of  the  world  from  the  greater  por- 
tion of  its  disease  and  crime,  its  poverty  and  distress ; 
but  we  have  not  conscience  enough  or  good  will 
enough  to  apply  fearlessly  and  hopefully  what  we 
already  know  along  these  lines.  The  blessing  prom- 
ised in  those  great  words  of  Christ,  "  If  ye  know 
these  things,  happy  are  ye  if  ye  do  them,"  still  waits 
upon  the  readiness  of  men  to  translate  knowledge 
into  action.  The  most  imperative  need,  therefore,  is 
not  so  much  for  further  instruction  in  the  actual  facts 
which  make  up  these  problems,  as  for  those  mighty 
spiritual  influences  which  may  be  brought  to  bear 
in  such  a  way  as  effectively  to  stimulate  the  action 
of  the  will  in  doing  that  which  the  clear  eye  already 
sees  to  be  right. 

Many  of  you  who  are  gathered  here  to-day  in  this 
seminary  are  to  minister  in  the  Congregational 
churches  of  this  country.  It  would  be  in  the  line 
of  a  genuine  "  apostolic  succession  "  if  some  of  you 
should  come  to  be  enrolled  with  the  pioneers  in  this 
work  of  furnishing  moral  leadership  for  the  social 
struggle  which  is  to  have  so  large  a  place  in  the  life 
to  which  you  will  be  called  to  minister.  Your  prede- 
cessors, the  Puritan  pastors  of  New  England,  were 
strong  in  their  sense  of  the  new  social  order  which 
was  to  come  as  the  earthly  realization  of  the  king- 


MORAL  LEADERSHIP   IN  SOCIAL  EFFORT      33 

dom  of  God.  They  dreamed  of  a  genuine  theocracy, 
a  civil  order  in  which  the  reign  of  the  divine  Spirit 
would  be  complete.  However  imperfect  and  even 
clumsy  modern  criticism  may  deem  some  of  their  at- 
tempts to  establish  their  social  ideals,  the  real  con- 
tent of  those  ideals,  the  brave  conception  of  an  asso- 
ciated life  which  should  embody  and  express  the  will 
and  purpose  of  God  for  men,  was  possessed  of  high 
and  lasting  value.  And  it  will  add  a  hundred-fold 
to  your  own  usefulness  as  pastors  if  you,  too,  may, 
in  the  language  of  your  day,  hold  aloft  ideals  which 
shall  be  equally  commanding,  and  labor  for  their 
realization  with  the  same  splendid  zeal. 


CHAPTER   II 

THE    SCRIPTURAL,    BASIS    FOR    A    SOCIAL    MESSAGE 

IT  would  be  difficult  to  name  any  other  serious  work 
in  all  the  world  of  useful  activity  which  is  commonly 
done  in  quite  such  haphazard  fashion  as  is  the  work 
of  religious  instruction  from  the  average  pulpit. 
The  moment  the  minister  finishes  his  breakfast  on 
Tuesday  morning  he  realizes  that  next  Sunday  is 
coming.  While  he  was  attending  the  ministers'  meet- 
ing the  day  before,  and  otherwise  beguiling  the  time, 
that  oft-recurring  day  of  judgment  has  been  gaining 
on  him — it  has  already  passed  the  first  of  the  six 
short  laps  which  lie  between  him  and  his  next  public 
appearance  in  the  pulpit.  "  What  shall  I  preach 
on  next  Sunday  ?  "  he  is  constrained  to  ask  himself. 
And  ordinarily  he  is  free  to  preach  on  anything  in 
heaven  above  or  in  the  earth  beneath,  or  in  that  other 
place,  the  precise  location  and  character  of  which  are 
not  quite  so  clearly  understood  to-day  as  they  once 
were,  acccording  to  their  claim,  by  some  of  our  the- 
ological predecessors. 

If  this  minister  is  nothing  but  a  timeserver  and 

*n  opportunist  he  may  decide  to  wait  a  day  or  two 

34 


ITS  SCRIPTURAL  BASIS  35 

and  see  what  the  ravens,  that  is,  the  newspapers,  may 
bring  him  in  the  way  of  some  sensation  or  some 
startling  question  of  the  hour,  which  will  furnish 
him  "  a  drawing  theme."  There  are  misguided 
prophets  sitting  by  all  the  brooks  Cherith  which  flow, 
hungry  for  some  such  ready-made  topic  and  intent 
upon  the  columns  of  the  daily  press  for  some  morsel 
which  may  be  thus  hastily  served  up  as  a  sermon. 
The  minister  may,  if  he  chooses,  seize  upon  that  new 
idea  which  came  to  him  in  last  week's  reading,  or 
he  may  decide  to  give  a  few  individual  sinners,  whose 
personal  shortcomings  have  loomed  before  him  con- 
spicuously within  the  last  few  days,  their  meat  in 
due  season;  or  he  may  simply  follow  some  whim  or 
mood,  taking  any  theme  which  appeals  to  him  most 
strongly  at  that  particular  moment;  or  he  may  act 
upon  the  counsel  given  him  in  the  seminary,  ask  for 
the  direct  guidance  of  the  Holy  Ghost  in  the  selec- 
tion of  his  topic. 

This  last  endeavor,  if  he  is  led  to  make  it,  is 
beyond  all  criticism  and  is,  indeed,  an  imperative 
duty  for  every  prophet  of  the  living  God.  But  you 
will  find  as  you  go  along,  brethren,  that  such  specific 
guidance  by  the  Holy  Spirit,  sought  for  and  expected 
on  the  spot,  is  a  very  difficult  thing  to  gain;  and, 
perhaps,  still  harder  to  be  definitely  recognized  when 
gained — as  some  one  has  said,  "  only  with  great  care 


36    SOCIAL  MESSAGE   OF  THE  MODERN   PULPIT 

and  discernment  to  be  distinguished  from  a  lot  of 
other  impulses  which  look  much  like  it  at  times." 
And  you  will  also  come  to  see  increasingly  that  "  the 
Holy  Spirit  is  a  very  wise  and  orderly  Spirit,"  with 
abundant  reasons  lying  back  for  all  that  He  does 
and  for  all  that  He  impels  His  confused  and  hesi- 
tating followers  to  do;  and,  furthermore,  that  His 
particular  guidance  is  granted  us  all  the  more  surely 
and  helpfully  if  we  already  have  some  sensible  and 
scriptural  habits  in  the  selection  of  our  themes  for 
the  work  of  the  pulpit  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  Lord 
will  lead  us,  very  much  as  He  did  Abraham's  servant, 
when  that  ancient  worthy  sought  divine  guidance 
along  with  the  constant  exercise  of  the  utmost  good 
judgment  which  he  himself  possessed  in  regard  to 
a  certain  matter — "  I  being  in  the  way,  the  Lord 
led  me." 

All  of  the  foregoing  methods  by  which  men  vault 
suddenly  into  the  sadddle  of  some  theme  and  ride  it 
hastily  into  the  pulpit  on  the  following  Sunday 
are  open  to  serious  objection,  and  I  would  urge  upon 
you,  therefore,  the  wisdom  of  adopting  some  wiser 
plan.  Your  stray  choices,  springing  out  of  your  own 
dominant  and  oft-recurring  moods,  are  liable  to  over- 
specialize  you  and  to  get  you  into  the  way  of  playing 
all  your  Gospel  music  on  two  or  three  stops,  whereas 
the  congregation  has  a  right  to  hear  the  full  organ, 


ITS  SCRIPTURAL  BASIS  37 

swell,  choir,  pedal,  great  organ  and  all,  sixty  stops, 
if  you  are  personally  capable  of  being  brought  to  such 
richness.  The  congregation  has  a  right  to  hear  you 
with  everything  turned  on — all  the  stops  that  are 
within  you  blessing  the  Lord  and  sounding  out  the 
full  harmony  of  the  Gospel  in  its  many  notes.  If 
you  should  become  thus  over-specialized  and  nar- 
rowed down  into  a  jews-harp,  your  people  would  suf- 
fer loss,  and  many  of  them  would  gradually  drop 
away  to  other  sanctuaries,  where  a  full  organ  still 
led  the  worship  and  shaped  the  aspiration  of  the 
congregation. 

I  am  therefore  a  firm  believer  in  well-constructed 
courses  of  sermons,  which  give  the  advantage  of  some 
useful  system  at  least  to  pulpit  instruction.  The 
orderly  lessons  of  the  Church  Year  in  the  prayer 
book,  with  the  habit  of  selecting  the  text  from  the 
Gospel  or  the  Epistle  for  the  day,  is  a  wholesome 
arrangement  and  tends  to  save  the  preachers  in  the 
Episcopal  Church  from  partial  views  of  truth  and 
from  ill-timed  flightiness.  It  may  not  be  expedient 
for  all  ministers  in  this  bustling  period  to  march 
with  measured  tread  through  the  stately  ongoings  of 
that  Church  Year,  but  order  can  be  had,  plentiful 
and  beautiful,  outside  of  any  such  prescribed  ar- 
rangement. 

I  have  used  for  some  years,  with  growing  satisfae- 


38    SOCIAL  MESSAGE  OF  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

tion  to  myself  and  with  increased  interest  and  profit 
secured  to  my  congregation,  the  method  of  expository 
preaching,  devoting  at  certain  seasons  months  and 
months  together  to  the  exposition  of  single  books  in 
the  Bible.  I  wish  here  to  indicate  strongly  my  sense 
of  the  value  of  this  method  and  to  speak  of  its  special 
appropriateness  and  utility  in  presenting  that  social 
message  which  is  my  main  theme. 

Personally  I  have  found  it  best  to  announce  no 
programme  or  schedule  in  advance — the  Gospel  Train 
does  not  need  to  run  as  yet  with  all  the  minute 
exactness  of  a  "  Twentieth  Century  Limited."  I  use 
the  book  in  hand  for  the  morning  or  for  the  evening 
service,  as  the  particular  passage  for  that  day  may 
be  best  adapted  to  the  differing  congregations.  I 
hold  it  easily,  so  that  it  can  be  dropped  for  a  Sunday 
on  occasion,  if  Christmas,  Palm  Sunday,  or  Easter, 
or  if  the  presentation  of  some  benevolent  cause  and 
the  taking  of  an  offering  should  intervene.  I  select 
such  a  portion  of  the  book  as  will  best  lend  itself  to 
topical  treatment,  sometimes  a  whole  chapter  or  more, 
sometimes  a  half  or  a  third  of  a  chapter — we  cannot 
cut  off  the  several  portions  we  intend  to  serve  up  to 
our  people  as  "  meat  that  endureth,"  according  to 
any  hard-and-fast  rule.  And  in  this  way  in  my 
present  pastorate,  where  I  have  been  for  ten  years, 
I  have  already  preached  six  months  each,  in  three 


ITS  SCRIPTURAL  BASIS  39 

different  years,  on  Matthew,  Mark,  and  Luke;  six 
months  on  the  Book  of  Acts;  six  months  on  First 
and  Second  Corinthians;  three  months  on  Genesis, 
three  months  on  Exodus  and  four  months  on  Joshua, 
with  other  courses  of  sermons  on  Job,  on  Isaiah,  and 
on  the  Minor  Prophets. 

You  will  find  that  some  people  will  enjoy  this  style 
of  preaching  from  the  outset;  many  more  can  be 
quickly  taught  to  enjoy  it,  and  those  who,  perhaps, 
turn  away  from  such  simple,  scriptural  fare  can  have 
their  wants  supplied  at  the  other  service — or,  pos- 
sibly, by  some  church  across  the  way.  It  was  never 
meant  that  any  one  lone  man  should  expect  to  preach 
with  equal  acceptance  and  effectiveness  to  all  creation 
— such  a  thing  would  spoil  him  with  conceit  and  be 
unfair  to  his  fellow-pastors  besides.  Your  sheep 
will  hear  your  voice,  for  by  your  particular  style  of 
preaching  you  will  gradually  call  out  their  names 
and  their  needs,  and  they  will  follow  you.  And  even 
while  you  are  striving  to  make  your  own  flock  as 
large  as  maybe,  you  will  rejoice  continually  over  the 
other  sheep  which  are  not  of  your  fold — the  other 
sheep  which  the  Lord  is  bringing  along  by  a  style 
of  ministry  that  you  could  not  possibly  furnish.  It 
is  by  virtue  of  this  varied  appeal  that  they,  too,  will 
be  brought  to  hear  and  heed  the  call  of  that  Good 
Shepherd  who  is  over  all  the  flocks. 


40    SOCIAL  MESSAGE   OF  THE  MODERN   PULPIT 

When  you  undertake  to  preach  for  a  series  of 
months  on  a  certain  book  in  the  Bible,  you  do  not, 
to  borrow  a  felicitous  figure  of  speech  used  by  Dr. 
Nathaniel  J.  Burton,  "  snatch  out  a  text  and  carry 
it  off  as  a  dog  might  carry  off  a  likely  looking  bone," 
in  order  to  ascertain  what  meat  you  can  pick  off  for 
your  people.  You  take  the  whole  book,  with  all  its 
layers  of  fat  and  tenderloin;  you  sit  down  with  it 
for  prolonged  interviews  and  for  many  wholesome, 
satisfying  meals.  By  the  use  of  spiritual  imagina- 
tion you  set  before  your  mind  the  whole  period  in 
which  that  book  originally  took  shape,  with  its  speech 
and  manners  and  all  its  belongings,  as  a  live  section 
of  the  world's  experience  which  you  propose  to  in- 
terpret and  utilize  in  the  work  of  spiritual  instruc- 
tion for  half  a  year  or  more.  You  lay  in  a  stock 
of  books  and  commentaries  bearing  upon  that  par- 
ticular portion  of  Holy  Scripture.  You  keep  up  this 
persistent  and  systematic  study  week  after  week,  un- 
til you  know  as  much  about  that  book  in  the  Bible 
as  it  is  possible  for  a  man  of  your  size  to  know. 
And  then  reverting  to  our  figure  again,  you  cut  off, 
from  Sunday  to  Sunday,  such  roasts  and  joints  as 
can  be  most  acceptably  served  up,  to  feed  your  peo- 
ple, not  as  with  the  meat  that  perisheth,  but  with 
that  meat  which  endureth  unto  everlasting  life.  This 
form  of  spiritual  nourishment  may  indeed  be  termed 


ITS  SCRIPTURAL  BASIS  41 

"  meat  which  the  Son  of  man  has  given  you  " — 
given  you  in  all  the  more  generous  and  satisfying 
measure  because  of  your  diligent  effort  thus  sys- 
tematically to  receive  it  at  His  hands.  I  regard  this 
as  the  finest  form  of  orderliness  possible  to  those  of 
us  who  work  in  non-ritualistic  churches.  In  the 
course  of  any  well-rounded-out  pastorate,  you  can 
see  what  systematic  training  the  people  would  thus 
receive  in  wholesome  Scripture  interpretation,  and 
what  a  wide  and  inspiring  acquaintance  they  would 
gain  with  all  the  great  truths  of  religion  and  of  life 
from  the  biblical  standpoint. 

It  not  only  rounds  out  a  man's  ministry,  but  it 
enables  him  to  say  a  great  many  homely  and  useful 
things  which  he  might  not  find  it  natural  to  say  were 
he  pursuing  the  plan  of  preaching  nothing  but  topi- 
cal sermons.  The  entire  Bible  fits  in  around  the 
total  human  need  like  a  well-made  suit  of  clothes. 
There  is  no  sin  or  sorrow,  no  doubt  or  difficulty,  no 
temptation  or  duty  which  is  not  contemplated  and 
provided  for  somewhere  within  its  ample  folds.  The 
man  who  is  following  its  lead  will  therefore  be  cer- 
tain to  discover  all  the  manifold  needs  of  his  people, 
and  soon  or  late  to  bring  something  to  the  aid  of 
each  one  in  the  course  of  such  extended  expository 
work. 

It  also  enables  the  minister  to  speak  plainly  and 


42    SOCIAL  MESSAGE  OP  THE  MODERN   PULPIT 

directly  touching  certain  sins  which  show  their  ugly 
heads  in  the  lives  of  some  of  the  very  people  before 
him,  without  any  suspicion  whatever  of  going  out 
of  his  way  to  rap  their  individual  knuckles.  This 
last  is  the  meanest  of  all  pulpit  sins — to  take  an  un- 
fair advantage  of  some  individual,  where  the  usages 
of  public  worship  and  all  the  proprieties  of  the  occa- 
sion forbid  his  talking  back,  in  order  to  vent  one's 
spite  upon  him  and  to  say  what  one  might  hesitate 
to  say  in  a  personal  interview.  I  trust  none  of  you 
will  ever  stoop  to  that.  Whenever  you  want  to  say 
"  Thou  art  the  man,"  have  the  good  sense  to  imi- 
tate Nathan's  method  as  well  as  his  boldness,  by 
seeking  out  the  offender  when  he  is  alone. 

In  the  exposition  of  such  a  book  as  Matthew's  Gos- 
pel, for  example :  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  with  its 
picture  of  a  social  condition  where  right-minded  and 
honest-hearted  men  would  no  longer  live  under  a 
constant,  harassing  anxiety  as  to  what  they  should 
eat  and  what  they  should  drink  and  wherewithal  they 
should  be  clothed;  the  Saviour's  call  to  the  weary 
and  .the  heavy  laden,  who,  by  coming  unto  Him,  in 
all  that  this  implies,  both  for  the  individual  and  for 
the  corporate  life  of  the  race,  were  to  find  that  to 
which  they  and  their  fathers  had  been  strangers — 
"  rest  unto  their  souls  " ;  the  series  of  parables  touch- 
ing that  kingdom  which  is  destined  to  transform 


ITS  SCRIPTURAL  BASIS  43 

common  life  as  with  a  new  leaven,  and  to  reorganize 
it  as  a  beautiful  tree ;  the  sad  picture  of  able-bodied 
men  eager  to  work,  but  standing  all  day  idle  in  the 
market-place  because  no  man  had  hired  them;  the 
pathetic  story  of  men  wearily  bearing  the  heat  and 
burden  of  exhausting  toil  for  a  penny  a  day;  the 
lessons  of  social  responsibility  unfolded  in  the  fail- 
ure of  the  foolish  virgins,  in  the  action  of  the  man 
who  hoarded  his  talent  instead  of  investing  it  in 
useful  service,  and,  above  all,  in  that  sublime  judg- 
ment scene  where  final  acceptance  or  rejection  at  the 
hands  of  the  Judge  of  all  the  earth  turns  upon  the 
way  men  have  dealt  with  the  hungry  and  the  needy, 
the  sick  and  the  imprisoned — all  these  passages  in 
that  one  gospel,  standing  along  the  way  of  his  pulpit 
ministrations  like  open  doors,  will  compel  the  man 
who  is  preaching  a  series  of  expository  sermons  on 
that  book  to  speak  out  many  a  plain  word  on  social 
righteousness  which  shall  be  to  his  listeners  as  a 
gospel  for  the  day. 

In  the  systematic  exposition  of  Matthew  also,  it 
will  not  only  be  natural,  it  will  be  inevitable  that 
the  preacher,  with  Christ's  words  before  him,  should 
declare  plainly  what  he  believes  to  be  the  whole  coun- 
sel of  God  in  regard  to  marriage  and  divorce,  even 
though  certain  well-dressed  pew-holders  who  have 
put  away  their  wives  through  the  hardness  of  their 


44    SOCIAL  MESSAGE   OF  THE  MODERN   PULPIT 

hearts,  replacing  them  with  more  attractive  substi- 
tutes, should  sit  uneasily  in  their  places.  With  that 
twenty-third  chapter  of  Matthew  standing  solidly  in 
his  way  as  he  moves  through  the  book,  he  must  also 
speak  plainly  against  that  wicked  hypocrisy  which 
prays  long  prayers  in  its  patient  and  regular  attend- 
ance upon  the  services  of  the  sanctuary,  and  then 
pays  the  pew-rent,  perhaps,  with  profits  derived  from 
devouring  widows'  houses  by  the  commercial  methods 
which  rule  its  actions  during  the  intervening  six 
days.  He  will  also  be  prompted,  by  Christ's  straight- 
forward utterance,  to  discuss  carefully  the  reasons 
for  that  unnatural  and  unholy  compulsion  of  multi- 
tudes of  our  fellow-beings  to  be  "  anxious  "  as  to 
"  what  they  shall  eat  and  drink  and  what  they  shall 
put  on  " — anxious  from  the  dawning  of  the  sense  of 
responsibility  for  their  own  support,  until  they  are 
laid  away,  it  may  be,  in  the  potter's  field.  He  will 
have  a  straight  word  to  say  to  those  who,  in  the  face 
of  Christ's  own  positive  declaration,  still  believe  that 
somehow  they  can  serve  both  God  and  Mammon  by 
simply  appointing  different  days  for  the  respective 
efforts,  dividing  the  time  in  the  ratio  of  six  to  one, 
with  the  long  end  of  the  bargain  in  favor  of  Mam- 
mon. With  such  a  passage  as  this  awaiting  exposi- 
tion, "  I  have  compassion  on  the  multitude  because 
they  continue  with  me  now  three  days  and  have  noth- 


ITS  SCRIPTURAL  BASIS  45 

ing  to  eat:  and  I  will  not  send  them  away  fasting, 
lest  they  faint  in  the  way,"  the  preacher  will  in- 
evitably urge  the  obligation  of  a  widely  inclusive 
social  sympathy;  from  the  passage  which  opens  with 
the  statement,  "  It  is  easier  for  a  camel  to  go  through 
the  eye  of  a  needle  than  for  a  rich  man  to  enter  into 
the  kingdom  of  God,"  he  will  make  plain  the  difficulty 
of  holding  and  administering  large  possessions  in  a 
thoroughly  Christian  way,  a  difficulty  which  every 
conscientious  rich  man  to-day,  when  the  moral  as- 
pects of  the  methods  of  accumulation  are  being  close- 
ly scrutinized,  is  coming  to  fully  recognize ;  with  that 
picture  of  men  neglecting  the  supreme  things  in  life 
because  of  their  very  absorption  in  "  farms "  and 
in  "  merchandise,"  the  minister  will  openly  rebuke 
the  same  wretched  tendency  which  is  a  moral  menace 
to  our  age.  These  sample  passages,  all  of  them  taken 
from  that  single  book,  serve,  in  their  bearing  upon 
many  of  the  social  problems  and  evils  of  our  own 
day,  to  indicate  the  splendid  opportunities  which  thus 
open  to  an  expository  preacher  who  is  desirous  of 
delivering  a  social  message  to  his  own  times  as  an 
organic  part  of  the  eternal  evangel. 

Or  the  minister  might  undertake  the  exposition  of 
that  brief  but  exceedingly  instructive  Book  of  James. 
The  scorn  which  the  modern  world  justly  heaps  upon 
the  religious  profession  which  fails  to  utter  itself 


46    SOCIAL  MESSAGE   OF  THE  MODERN   PULPIT 

in  a  steadfast  effort  to  perform  the  duties  which  that 
profession  involves,  is  here  declared  in  words  that 
burn.  The  essential  elements  of  "  pure  and  unde- 
nted religion  "  are  here  most  accurately  denned  as 
holiness  and  usefulness,  the  keeping  of  the  life  un- 
spotted from  the  world  and  the  investment  of  it  in 
service  rendered  to  the  fatherless  and  the  widows  as 
types  of  the  world's  need.  The  unseemly  eagerness 
of  some  churches  to  enjoy  the  good-will  of  the  fortu- 
nate, saying  to  the  man  with  goodly  apparel  and  the 
gold  ring,  "  Sit  thou  here,"  and  to  the  poor  man  in 
vile  raiment,  "  Stand  thou  there,"  comes  in  for  ef- 
fective rebuke.  The  wickedness  of  reckless  speech 
in  public  address,  in  the  columns  of  the  press,  in 
the  unthinking  utterances  of  many  an  agitator,  is  here 
set  out  in  clear  type :  The  tongue  is  called  "  a  wild 
beast  which  no  man  can  tame  " ;  the  tongue  is  '  a 
fire  kindled  from  the  fire  of  hell ' ;  the  tongue  is 
'  a  little  member  but  able  to  defile  the  whole  body ' 
of  one's  influence;  the  tongue  is  the  most  effective 
instrument  we  possess  for  good  or  ill — "  therewith 
bless  we  God  even  the  Father  and  therewith  curse  we 
men  .  .  .  out  of  the  same  mouth  proceed  blessing 
and  cursing."  The  spiritual  indifference  and  the  in- 
solent defiance  of  the  divine  claims  upon  us,  exhibited 
by  those  who  say,  "  To-day  or  to-morrow  we  will  go 
into  such  a  city  and  continue  there  a  year,  and  buy 


ITS  SCRIPTURAL  BASIS  47 

and  sell  and  get  gain/'  not  knowing  where  they  will 
be  on  the  morrow,  because  the  life  they  live  is  "  a 
vapor  that  appeareth  for  a  little  time  and  then  van- 
isheth  away  " — this  whole  attitude,  which  is  as  mod- 
ern as  an  automobile,  is  here  brought  face  to  face 
with  its  ugly  self  and  with  its  deleterious  influence ! 
The  riches  which  are  "  corrupted  "  at  their  source 
by  the  methods  employed  in  gaining  them ;  the  gold 
and  silver  which  is  "  cankered  "  by  the  stains  which 
injustice  and  oppression  had  left  upon  its  possessors ; 
the  all  too  meagre  "  hire  of  laborers  "  who  reaped 
down  the  fields,  but  whose  rightful  reward  is  "  kept 
back  "  by  fraud ;  the  irresponsible  conduct  of  those 
who  "  live  in  pleasure "  on  the  earth,  but  are 
"  wanton  "  in  their  lack  of  any  true  sense  of  obliga- 
tion— all  these  forms  of  evil-doing  in  modern  society 
inevitably  come  in  for  treatment  by  the  man  who 
would  give  his  congregation  a  series  of  expository 
sermons  on  the  Book  of  James. 

Or,  if  the  minister  should  turn  to  the  Old  Testa- 
ment and  undertake  the  systematic  exposition  of  the 
First  Isaiah,  he  would  find  himself  in  possession  of 
abundant  and  useful  material  for  a  social  message 
to  his  own  times.  "  Woe  unto  them  that  decree  un- 
righteous decrees  to  turn  aside  the  needy  from  judg- 
ment and  to  take  away  the  right  from  the  poor  of  my 
people,"  he  could  cry  in  the  language  of  this  early 


48    SOCIAL  MESSAGE   OF  THE  MODERN   PULPIT 

prophet!  He  could  say  just  that,  with  the  modern 
accent  upon  it,  to  the  ruthless  managers  of  great  cor- 
porate interests  who  often  trample  upon  the  rights 
of  laborers,  and  upon  the  small,  independent  oper- 
ators, and  upon  the  helpless  public,  by  manipulating 
not  only  prices  and  markets,  but  the  common  carriers 
and  the  courts,  and  even  the  legislatures,  for  their 
own  gain.  In  the  face  of  showy  worship,  costly 
churches  and  ostentatious  gifts  to  ecclesiastical  en- 
terprises accompanied  by  social  injustice,  the  min- 
ister could  say  with  Isaiah :  "  To  what  purpose  is 
the  multitude  of  your  sacrifices  unto  me  ?  Bring  no 
more  vain  oblations ;  incense  is  an  abomination  unto 
me !  Who  hath  required  this  at  your  hands  ?  Your 
new  moons  and  your  appointed  feasts  my  soul  hateth. 
But  put  away  the  evil  of  your  doings  from  before 
mine  eyes!  Seek  judgment,  relieve  the  oppressed; 
judge  the  fatherless ;  plead  for  the  widow."  Against 
the  hot-headed  enthusiasts  who  mistake  jingoism  for 
patriotism,  and  against  those  who  recklessly  foment 
international  differences,  thus  secretly  encouraging 
the  habit  of  war  because  of  the  stimulus  it  offers  to 
certain  lines  of  business,  he  could  hurl  the  words  of 
the  prophet:  "  The  Lord  shall  judge  among  the  na- 
tions and  shall  rebuke  many  people:  and  they  shall 
beat  their  swords  into  ploughshares,  and  their  spears 
into  pruning-hooks  "  ;  they  shall  convert  the  destruc- 


ITS  SCRIPTURAL  BASIS  49 

tive  forces  into  productive  ones,  utilizing  the  bright 
metal  of  the  nation's  young  manhood  not  to  destroy- 
but  to  sustain  men's  lives.  He  could  sing  of  the  time 
when  "  nation  shall  not  lift  up  sword  against  na- 
tion, neither  shall  they  learn  war  any  more." 

In  this  Book  of  Isaiah,  also,  the  current  material- 
ism, operating  not  as  a  philosophical  doctrine  but  as 
a  social  tendency,  is  most  effectively  rebuked.  '  Their 
land  is  full  of  silver  and  gold,  neither  is  there  any 
end  of  their  treasures.  Their  land  is  also  full  of 
horses,  neither  is  there  any  end  of  their  chariots. 
Their  land  is  also  full  of  idols;  they  worship  the 
work  of  their  own  hands,  that  which  their  own  fingers 
have  made.'  The  alarming  readiness  of  the  strong 
and  the  shrewd  cruelly  to  exploit  for  their  own  ad- 
vantage the  labor  of  the  weak,  and  their  willingness 
to  crush  out  the  chance  of  progress  for  the  people  of 
small  means,  come  in  for  a  stern  condemnation  where 
the  prophet  discerning  the  same  tendency  in  his  own 
day,  cries :  '  The  Lord  will  enter  into  judgment  with 
His  people,  for  ye  have  eaten  up  the  vineyard;  the 
spoil  of  the  poor  is  in  your  houses.  What  mean  ye 
that  ye  beat  my  people  to  pieces,  and  grind  the  faces 
of  the  poor,  saith  the  Lord  of  Hosts  ? '  The  menac- 
ing figure  of  selfish  monopoly,  holding  itself  superior 
to  the  law  and  disregarding  the  interests  of  the  con- 
suming public,  which  stalks  through  our  own  Repub- 


lie  unashamed,  is  here  held  up  to  scorn  in  those 
ringing  words:  'Woe  unto  them  that  join  house  to 
house  and  lay  field  to  field  until  there  be  no  room, 
that  they  may  dwell  alone  in  the  midst  of  the  earth. 
He  looked  for  justice  but  behold  oppression,  for 
righteousness  but  behold  a  cry.'  The  sophists  of  the 
press  and  the  chair  and  the  pulpit,  the  special  plead- 
ers, the  perverters  of  truth  and  right,  the  specious 
defenders  of  the  social  wrong-doing  which  has 
brought  a  blight  upon  modern  civilization  and  low- 
ered the  moral  tone  of  the  nation  are  thus  arraigned : 
1  Woe  unto  them  that  call  evil  good  and  good  evil ; 
that  put  darkness  for  light  and  light  for  darkness; 
that  put  bitter  for  sweet  and  sweet  for  bitter.'  And 
all  those  who  would  make  the  social  struggle  a  con- 
test of  brute  force  for  material  advantage,  who  be- 
lieve that  our  deliverance  and  safety  can  be  gained 
altogether  by  physical  power  and  legal  might,  no 
attention  whatever  being  given  to  that  unseen  Spirit, 
who  is  not  far  from  any  one  of  us — all  those  mistaken 
souls  will  find  wholesome  instruction  in  that  solemn 
passage :  "  Woe  to  them  that  go  down  to  Egypt  for 
help,  that  stay  on  horses  and  trust  in  chariots  be- 
cause they  are  many,  but  look  not  unto  the  Holy 
One  of  Israel  neither  seek  the  Lord.  The  Egyptians 
are  men  and  not  God,  their  horses  are  flesh  and  not 
spirit.  Turn  ye  therefore  unto  Him  from  whom  ye 


ITS  SCRIPTURAL  BASIS  51 

have  deeply  revolted."  Thus  spoke  the  leading 
prophet  of  Israel  in  the  eighth  century  before  Christ, 
to  the  social  conditions  of  his  own  land  and  time; 
and  thus  he  speaks  with  those  notes  of  divine  truth 
which  are  timeless,  regarding  the  problems  we  are 
called  upon  to  face  in  this  twentieth  century  after 
Christ 

I  will  not  further  multiply  illustrations  of  the 
value  and  pertinency  of  whole  sections  of  Scripture 
in  thus  furnishing  the  best  of  all  bases  for  the  word 
of  the  modern  prophet  to  the  social  conditions  of  his 
own  time.  I  have  here  quoted  these  many  passages 
from  Matthew,  from  James,  and  from  Isaiah,  not  as 
carefully  selected  proof-texts  in  support  of  my  con- 
tention— such  a  use  of  the  Bible  has  come  to  be 
largely  discredited,  for  the  simple  reason  that  by 
plucking  single  passages  out  of  the  context  here  and 
there,  and  by  cleverly  piecing  them  together  in  the 
interests  of  some  particular  theory,  the  most  extrava- 
gant and  unwarranted  propositions  can  be  given  an 
apparent  support  from  Scripture.  I  have  cited  these 
many  and  varied  passages  rather  to  indicate  how 
strong  and  how  clear  was  the  social  interest  and  sym- 
pathy of  the  men  whose  utterances  are  here  recorded ; 
how  plain  it  was  to  them  that  the  recovery  of  the 
social  life  from  the  abuses  which  had  fastened  upon 
it  was  an  essential  part  of  the  task  of  religion ;  and 


52    SOCIAL  MESSAGE  OP  THE  MODERN   PULPIT 

how  effectively  they  grappled  with  the  moral  values 
bound  up  with  these  social  problems,  as  is  indicated 
by  the  fact  that  the  main  principles  of  their  message 
are  just  as  applicable  to  our  own  situation  as  they 
were  to  the  needs  of  those  who  were  immediately 
addressed. 

The  social  message  from  God  to  men,  as  outlined 
in  the  Bible,  is  in  no  sense,  then,  an  aside  or  a  by- 
product; it  is  not  incidental  to  the  main  purpose  of 
the  Gospel,  but  an  essential  part  of  it.  The  redemp- 
tion proposed  was  not  merely  to  bring  men  up  to 
the  point  where  they  would  love  God  with  all  their 
hearts,  it  was  to  establish  them  as  well  in  that  real 
and  abiding  love  for  their  neighbors  which  would 
show  itself  in  a  justly  organized  and  equitably  ad- 
ministered social  life.  In  seeking,  therefore,  to  make 
the  every-day  life  of  men,  with  its  network  of  social 
relations  consuming  the  bulk  of  their  strength  and 
interest,  a  real  habitation  of  the  Spirit,  a  temple  of 
the  living  God  wherein  the  souls  of  His  children  may 
dwell  all  the  days  of  their  lives — Sunday,  Monday, 
Tuesday,  Wednesday,  and  all  the  rest,  beholding 
steadily  in  their  secular  experiences  the  beauty  of 
the  Lord  and  strengthened  constantly  by  the  sense 
of  exalted  fellowship — in  seeking  to  bring  the  organ- 
ized life  of  modern  society  up  to  that  high  ideal,  the 
minister  of  the  Gospel  is  not  a  stranger  or  a  for- 


ITS  SCRIPTURAL   BASIS  63 

eigner;  he  is  a  fellow-citizen  with  the  saints  and  of 
the  household  of  God;  he  is,  in  all  that  high  en- 
deavor, building  directly  upon  the  foundation  of  the 
prophets  and  apostles,  Jesus  Christ  Himself  being 
the  chief  corner-stone ! 

We  may  say,  then,  that  not  only  does  the  preacher 
find  abundant  material  for  a  social  message  ready 
to  his  hand  in  the  Scripture;  not  only  is  he  per- 
mitted and  encouraged  to  address  himself  directly 
to  the  consideration  of  these  problems  by  the  example 
of  those  inspired  men  who  have  preceded  him  in  the 
age-long  task  of  human  redemption — the  social  teach- 
ings of  the  Bible  are  so  fundamental  to  the  whole 
approach  it  makes  to  our  necessities,  that  there  is  an 
imperative  call  for  that  type  of  preaching.  The  min- 
ister who  should  give  his  main  strength  to  the  in- 
culcation of  a  personal  and  private  piety  in  that  little 
group  of  souls  to  which  he  might  devote  himself, 
leaving  out  of  view  the  rightful  articulation  of  those 
lives  to  the  industrial  and  political  framework  in 
which  they  stand,  would  be  unfaithful  to  the  high 
commission  he  had  received.  The  modern  apostles, 
no  less  than  the  original  twelve,  are  sent  out  to  preach, 
saying,  "  The  kingdom  of  heaven  is  at  hand."  And 
it  is  plain  to  every  intelligent  man  that  the  ideal 
society  here  proposed  can  only  be  at  hand,  even  po- 
tentially and  prospectively,  where  the  readjustment 


54    SOCIAL  MESSAGE   OF  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

of  social  relations  according  to  the  spirit  and  method 
announced  by  Christ  is  steadily  kept  in  view  as  a 
vital  part  of  the  work  of  regeneration. 

It  was  an  American  bishop  of  a  former  genera- 
tion, standing  in  the  true  apostolic  succession,  not 
by  virtue  of  any  peculiar  title-deeds  held  by  his  own 
communion,  but  through  his  own  high  character  and 
noble  usefulness,  who  said :  u  More  than  once  did  the 
Hebrew  kings  seek  to  break  away  from  the  inter- 
meddling of  the  clergy,  but  God  smote  the  politician 
and  not  the  prophet.  Saul  meddled  with  Samuel's 
duties  and  God  took  his  kingdom  from  him;  but 
Samuel  was  never  censured  for  his  intermeddling 
with  the  affairs  of  Saul.  David  had  to  submit  to 
the  authority  of  more  than  one  priest  or  prophet,  but 
no  prophet  was  ever  compelled  to  silence  before  him. 
Isaiah,  Ezekiel,  Jeremiah,  Amos,  Hosea,  and  all  the 
preachers  of  righteousness  dwelt  on  social  and  civic 
sins — they  dwelt  on  hardly  anything  else."  The  man 
who  proclaims  his  social  message,  therefore,  both  in 
the  terms  and  in  the  spirit  of  the  best  Scripture  the 
world  has,  will  be  made  strong  by  the  reenforcement 
which  comes  from  his  sense  of  cooperation  with  that 
spirit  of  righteousness  manifest  in  the  work  of  the 
saints  and  seers,  the  prophets  and  apostles  of  all 
time,  that  spirit  of  righteousness  which  is  from  ever- 
lasting  to  everlasting. 


ITS  SCRIPTURAL   BASIS  55 

The  sublime  sense  of  responsibility  for  the  inter- 
ests of  the  child,  for  example,  which  the  Bible  habitu- 
ally manifests,  will  furnish  the  Christian  preacher 
a  noble  foundation  for  his  opposition  to  the  present 
disgraceful  and  menacing  custom  of  exploiting  child- 
hood for  gain.  "  Whoso  shall  cause  one  of  these  little 
ones  which  believe  in  me  to  stumble,  it  were  better 
for  him  that  a  mill-stone  were  hanged  about  his  neck 
and  that  he  were  drowned  in  the  depth  of  the  sea." 
"  Take  heed  that  ye  despise  not  one  of  these  little 
ones,  for  I  say  unto  you  that  in  heaven  their  angels 
do  always  behold  the  face  of  my  Father,  which  is  in 
heaven."  "  It  is  not  the  will  of  your  Father  which 
is  in  heaven  that  one  of  these  little  ones  should 
perish."  This  is  the  great  word  of  Christ  Himself, 
and  how  wickedly  we  have  sinned  against  it  here 
and  there  in  modern  industry  by  the  greedy  use  of 
the  profitable  labor  of  immature  children! 

The  Child  Labor  Law  of  Pennsylvania  forbids  the 
employment  of  boys  in  the  coal  mines  under  the  age 
of  sixteen,  and  in  the  breakers  or  about  the  mines 
under  the  age  of  fourteen  years.  But  Dr.  Peter 
Roberts,  in  his  book  "  The  Anthracite  Coal  Com- 
munities," estimates  that  there  are  in  the  anthracite 
region  not  less  than  six  thousand  four  hundred  boys 
under  the  age  of  fourteen  employed  in  and  about  the 
mines,  basing  his  estimate  on  personal  investigation 


66    SOCIAL  MESSAGE  OF  THE  MODERN  PULPIT 

and  the  statistics  of  certain  sections  of  the  district 
collected  at  first  hand.  Owen  R.  Love  joy,  in  a  group 
of  twenty-two  breaker  boys,  found  from  examination 
of  the  school  record,  showing  their  former  attendance, 
that  one  was  nine,  four  were  ten,  two  were  eleven, 
six  were  twelve,  three  were  thirteen  years  of  age — 
sixteen  out  of  twenty-two  were  under  fourteen  and 
were  therefore  employed  in  violation  of  the  law  of 
the  State.  "  For  nine  hours  a  day  these  little  fellows 
toil  in  the  breaker,  bending  over  a  stream  of  coal 
which  pours  out  a  cloud  of  dust  so  thick  that  the  light 
cannot  penetrate  it  They  are  responsible  for  the 
exact  separation  from  the  coal  of  all  slate  and  rock 
— depending  often  entirely  on  the  sense  of  touch. 
They  endure  the  incessant  rattle  of  deafening,  gi- 
gantic machinery.  They  suffer  the  stifling  heat  of 
summer  at  one  season  and  the  bitter  blasts  that  sweep 
these  mountain-tops  at  another.  They  are  conscious 
that  the  '  boss '  stands  behind  with  his  stick  or  a 
small  piece  of  coal  to  prompt  to  duty  if  the  natural 
exuberance  of  childhood  breaks  out  in  playfulness 
or  if  backache  induces  a  moment  of  forgetfulness. 
They  have  their  hands  cut  and  crippled  and  hardened 
by  contact  with  the  rough  stones  and  bits  of  sharp- 
edged  coal.  They  must  learn  to  control  the  nausea 
caused  by  swallowing  quantities  of  coal-dust  and 
by  the  feeling  that  one's  throat  and  lungs  are  never 


ITS  SCRIPTURAL  BASIS  57 

clean!  These  are  experiences  which  it  may  still  be 
necessary  for  stalwart  men  to  endure  in  order  to 
provide  society  with  this  staple ;  but  to  bare  the  tender 
body  of  a  boy  of  nine  or  ten  years  to  such  a  life,  to 
rob  him  of  the  too  brief  period  of  play-time  and 
growth  by  the  hardening  exactions  of  such  a  daily 
routine,  is  to  doom  him  to  a  gray  monotony  of  unin- 
spiring prospect  from  which  all  beauty,  art,  joy  in 
labor,  and  hope  of  better  things  are  forever  shut  out." 

And  when  we  realize  that  all  this  is  being  done 
because  "  business  is  business,"  because  the  appetites 
of  the  stockholders  in  the  mines  are  keen  for  big 
dividends,  thus  impelling  the  superintendent  to  get 
the  work  done  as  cheaply  as  possible,  we  wonder  if 
we  are  really  living  in  a  Christian  country!  We 
wonder  how  we  can  sit  at  the  glowing  grate-fire  and 
not  see  therein  the  burned-out  lives  of  little  children 
whose  vitality  has  been  withered  and  blasted  in  the 
process  of  producing  the  coal!  It  was  on  behalf 
of  just  such  children  as  these  that  the  sympathetic 
heart  of  Christ  spoke  his  words  of  warning.  Woe 
unto  him  that  causeth  one  of  these  little  ones  to 
stumble — it  were  better  that  a  mill-stone  were  hanged 
about  his  neck  and  that  he  were  cast  into  the  depths 
of  the  sea. 

The  very  fact  that  the  minister  of  religion  grounds 
his  social  message  in  the  Bible,  drawing  it  organically 


58    SOCIAL  MESSAGE  OF  THE  MODERN   PULPIT 

and  vitally  out  of  a  regular  course  of  scriptural  in- 
struction, relieves  him  from  the  charge,  so  readily 
made  against  a  man  who  has  more  to  say  about  the 
sins  of  the  people  before  him  than  about  the  sins  of 
Jeroboam  and  Rehoboam,  of  being  a  sensationalist. 
The  scriptural  quality  of  his  message  lifts  it  up  and 
gives  it  the  quality  of  timelessness.  It  is,  indeed,  the 
eternal  evangel  in  its  substance,  and  yet  in  its  ap- 
plication it  is  as  fresh  and  pertinent  as  this  morning's 
daily  paper.  This  habit  of  expository  preaching  thus 
fortifies  the  minister  in  his  position;  it  tends  to  re- 
move the  prejudice  which  many  people  feel  toward 
preaching  upon  questions  of  the  day,  a  prejudice 
which  sometimes  closes  the  door  against  a  helpful 
message;  and  it  lodges  many  disturbing  but  useful 
lessons  within  the  hearts  of  those  who  cannot  put  the 
Bible  out  of  the  door,  as  they  are  sometimes  tempted 
to  do  with  the  minister  whose  sermon  has  made  them 
uncomfortable.  Such  lessons  lovingly  taught  serve 
to  instruct  them  in  the  higher  righteousness,  to  make 
them  wise  unto  a  deeper  salvation,  and  to  furnish 
them  thoroughly  for  every  good  work. 

There  is  also  high  value  in  attaching  any  important 
truth  to  what  is  already  familiar  and  beloved.  In 
the  judgment  of  many  men,  the  greatest  asset,  hu- 
manly speaking,  which  the  Episcopal  Church  has 
is  its  Prayer-Book.  The  true  Episcopalian  might  be 


ITS  SCRIPTURAL  BASIS  59 

fittingly  described  in  those  words  from  the  Book  of 
Revelation,  "  He  had  in  his  hand  a  little  book, 
open."  The  Prayer-Book  is  a  little  book;  it  can 
readily  be  held  in  any  hand,  open ;  it  can  be  carried 
in  the  pocket,  read  on  the  train,  held  by  the  sick; 
it  is  a  manual  of  devotion  in  every  way  portable  and 
usable.  It  contains  the  Psalms,  a  selection  from  the 
Gospels,  and  another  from  the  Epistles,  for  every 
Sunday  in  the  year.  It  has  in  it  some  of  the  choicest 
words  gleaned  from  the  aspirations  of  the  ages,  pray- 
ers of  every  kind  for  "  all  sorts  and  conditions  of 
men  " — its  Litany  enfolds  our  whole  range  of  spir- 
itual need  and  carries  it  up  as  with  the  sense  of  a 
wide-spread  and  corporate  fellowship  of  devotion,  be- 
fore the  throne  of  the  Universal  Father.  And  the 
very  fact  that  the  service  of  worship  in  every  Epis- 
copal church,  and  the  private  devotions  of  the  indi- 
vidual Christian,  and  the  religious  office  at  weddings, 
christenings,  burials,  are  all  attached  to  this  familiar 
little  book,  adds  to  their  effectiveness  and  to  its  ef- 
fectiveness in  ministering  to  the  spiritual  life. 

In  much  more  extended  fashion  the  words  of  the 
Bible,  its  histories  and  biographies,  its  songs  and 
prayers,  its  ethical  appeals  and  spiritual  visions,  its 
words  of  promise,  cheer,  and  comfort,  as  well  as  its 
unmistakable  rebukes  and  warnings,  its  deep  insights, 
broad  outlooks,  and  profound  revelations,  have  all 


60    SOCIAL  MESSAGE   OF  THE  MODERN   PULPIT 

found  a  place  in  the  general  consciousness  of  a  large 
part  of  Christendom.  And  when  the  particular  in- 
struction needed  for  special  interests  and  situations 
can  be  closely  and  warmly  related  to  that  body  of 
literature  and  to  the  vaster  body  of  sentiment  which 
enfolds  it,  the  value  of  the  instruction  is  enhanced 
a  hundred-fold.  You  can  see  at  once  the  unspeak- 
able advantage  to  be  gained  by  attaching  the  social 
message  closely  and  systematically  to  the  instruction 
given  in  the  Scriptures. 

The  Bible  in  its  length  and  breadth,  its  heights 
and  depths,  is  not  a  book  mainly  for  the  recluse. 
Those  business  men,  living,  as  many  of  them  do,  with 
manifold  burdens  and  anxieties;  living,  as  many  of 
them  do,  out  on  the  frontier,  where  right  and  wrong 
meet  face  to  face  six  days  in  the  week  and  fight  to 
the  death;  tempted,  as  many  of  them  are,  to  sing 
the  song  of  life  in  a  lower  key  than  it  was  ever  meant 
to  be  pitched — they  all  need  the  helpful  ministry  of 
these  pages  of  Scripture.  They  need  habitual  con- 
ference with  a  book  which  is  not  afraid  of  them  as 
it  calls  upon  them  to  stand  up  before  the  highest 
and  most  searching  ideals,  as  it  invites  them  to  try 
conclusions  with  the  purposes  of  God  concerning 
them,  as  it  seeks  to  bring  them  to  know  Him  who 
stands  ready  to  be  the  efficient  guide  and  helper  of 
their  busy  lives. 


ITS  SCRIPTURAL  BASIS  61 

And  those  other  men  who  do  the  rough  work  of 
the  world  in  the  mills  and  the  mines,  in  the  factories 
and  in  the  foundries,  in  all  the  trades  and  crafts 
which  take  up  the  physical  strength  of  the  race,  they 
need  this  entire  book  no  less.  They  are  tempted 
sometimes  to  make  their  social  effort  a  mere  brute 
struggle  for  material  advantage.  They  listen  to  agi- 
tators and  read  trade  journals,  which  sometimes  fall 
into  a  way  of  speaking  as  if  the  wage-earner  were 
only  a  superior  kind  of  cab  horse,  intent  solely  upon 
shorter  hours,  a  better  barn,  and  more  oats.  All  such 
agitation,  as  we  know,  is  doomed  to  failure  for  lack 
of  moral  energy  to  carry  it  on  and  up;  but  those 
whose  spiritual  eyes  are  dull  because  of  severe  toil, 
and  who  are  slow  of  heart  to  believe  the  good  things 
which  God  has  prepared  for  those  who  cooperate  with 
Him,  are  often  blinded  to  the  larger  issues  at  stake. 
If  out  of  this  book,  which  is  not  regarded  as  partisan 
or  timeserving,  out  of  this  book  which  has  come 
down  through  the  ages  as  a  divine  messenger  to 
preach  good  tidings  to  the  poor,  to  bind  up  the  broken- 
hearted, to  preach  deliverance  to  the.  captive,  and  to 
set  at  liberty  them  that  are  bruised,  the  appeal  of  the 
modern  preacher  may  come,  sharing  in  the  wide  and 
permanent  sanction  which  attaches  to  its  utterances, 
his  words  will  be  endued  with  power  from  on  high. 

However  it  came  about,  we  have  not  thus  far  sue- 


62    SOCIAL  MESSAGE   OF  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

ceeded  in  rearing  up  Christian  men  and  women  in 
any  considerable  numbers  who  prove  to  be  largely, 
nobly,  and  steadily  useful,  except  as  they  have  been 
fed,  and  well  fed,  on  Scripture.  The  paper  and  the 
magazine,  the  religious  poem  and  the  sermon,  may 
all  come  in,  and  they  ought  to  come  in,  but  there  is 
still  an  unapproached  primacy  in  the  Scriptures 
themselves.  They  instruct  men  in  righteousness,  and 
furnish  them  thoroughly  for  all  good  work  in  a  way 
that  nothing  else  seems  to  have  succeeded  in  doing. 
If,  then,  we  are  to  have  men  of  fine  quality,  large 
faith,  moral  vigor,  bearing  with  them  the  sense  and 
atmosphere  of  God's  presence,  and  able  to  stand  firm 
in  every  hour  of  trial,  we  must  have  men  into  whose 
spiritual  fibre  these  ancient  Scriptures  have  gone. 
Our  main  reliance  in  the  work  of  spiritual  progress 
will  be  upon  that  Christian  consciousness  which  is 
saturated  with  Bible  truth,  instructed  by  the  world- 
wide, age-long  experience  of  the  church,  and  applied 
to  conduct  by  moral  reason.  And  because  of  that 
dominant  interest  in  social  questions,  which  is  at 
present  the  open  door  to  many  thousands  of  lives, 
it  is  of  vital  importance  that  the  social  message  for 
our  day  should  have  this  biblical  basis. 

The  whole  interpretation  of  ordinary  life  will  be 
affected  by  this  scriptural  point  of  view.  When  the 
mind  of  a  congregation  comes  to  be  thoroughly  satu- 


ITS  SCRIPTURAL  BASIS  63 

rated  with  the  language  and  the  concepts  of  the  four 
gospels,  we  will  say,  this  will  naturally  and  irre- 
sistibly infuse  new  meanings  into  many  of  the  ex- 
pressions of  daily  life.  "  How  much  is  a  certain 
man  worth?  "  we  often  ask.  Such  a  question  will  be 
given  a  new  content  and  will  receive  a  more  complete 
reply  when  society  has  been  trained  to  think  in  terms 
of  Scripture.  How  much  is  he  worth?  Is  he  worth 
what  he  costs  ?  Does  he  give  value  received  in  actual 
service  rendered  for  what  he  takes  of  the  common 
wealth?  Is  he  worth  feeding,  clothing,  and  main- 
taining in  the  expensive  way  he  has  come  to  insist 
upon  at  the  hands  of  society?  All  these  considera- 
tions must  be  taken  into  account  before  we  can  reply 
as  to  how  much  he  is  worth. 

How  much  is  he  worth?  The  ordinary  reply  is 
a  statement  of  the  value  of  his  material  possessions. 
This,  however,  does  not  tell  us  anything  about  the 
worth  of  the  man — it  simply  states  the  price  of  the 
things  that  he  possesses.  But  no  man's  life  "  con- 
sisteth  in  the  abundance  of  the  things  that  he  pos- 
sesseth " ;  it  consists  always  in  those  qualities  and 
capabilities  which  render  him  a  useful  member  of 
society  and  an  honored  servant  of  the  living  God. 
The  scriptural  point  of  view,  therefore,  as  it  becomes 
habitual  aids  us  in  a  just  interpretation  of  all  th« 
terms  and  interests  of  common  life. 


64    SOCIAL  MESSAGE   OF  THE  MODERN   PULPIT 

In  her  volume  on  "  Democracy  and  Social  Ethics," 
Jane  Adams,  of  Hull  House,  Chicago,  indicates  the 
different  view-points  of  three  persons  who  might  look 
upon  an  eight-year-old  boy  who  darts  into  a  street- 
car selling  evening  papers.  The  well-to-do  business 
man  buys  a  paper  from  the  little  chap  with  no  sense 
of  moral  repulsion — on  the  contrary,  he  may  feel  a 
certain  satisfaction  that  he  is  helping  an  energetic 
boy  to  make  his  way  in  the  world.  The  philanthropic 
lady  next  him  thinks  it  a  pity  that  such  a  bright  boy 
should  not  be  in  school;  she  resolves  to  redouble  her 
efforts  on  behalf  of  night-schools  in  the  newsboys 
homes  so  that  this  child  may  have  some  chance  at 
an  education.  The  thoughtful  working-man  sitting 
opposite,  trained  in  trades-union  methods,  sees  the 
boy's  natural  development  arrested  by  this  abnormal 
activity,  which  uses  up  energy  that  should  go  into 
growth;  he  has  seen  men  entering  the  factory  at 
eighteen  so  worn  out  by  premature  work  that  they 
were  laid  on  the  shelf  within  ten  or  fifteen  years; 
and  so  he  regards  the  early  use  of  this  boy's  powers 
as  having  but  a  momentary  and  specious  value.  He 
knows  that  while  he  may  be  able  to  do  nothing  for 
this  particular  boy,  he  can  help  agitate  for  child-labor 
laws,  for  the  prohibition  of  street  vending  by  chil- 
dren, so  that  the  child  of  the  poorest  may  have  se- 
cured to  him  a  chance  for  growth  and  education. 


ITS  SCRIPTURAL  BASIS  65 

The  view  of  the  third  man  is  the  only  view  which 
embodies  within  it  the  spirit  of  social  righteousness, 
kindly  and  well  meant  as  may  be  the  interest  of  the 
first  two.  But  it  is  also  necessary  to  see  this  boy 
as  the  men  who  wrote  the  Bible  would  have  seen  him. 
We  must  view  him  in  his  moral  and  spiritual  possi- 
bilities in  order  to  enlist  powerfully  on  his  behalf 
all  the  forces  which  are  demanded  for  his  proper 
nurture.  To  see  in  that  boy  a  potential  force  in  the 
kingdom  of  God,  a  son  of  the  resurrection,  an  image 
of  the  divine  likeness,  and  to  see  all  these  possibili- 
ties going  down  in  defeat  by  his  withdrawal  from 
wholesome  influences  into  the  rough  life  of  the  street, 
and  by  the  premature  strain  of  unnatural  labor — in 
a  word,  to  see  that  boy  as  the  men  of  the  Bible  would 
have  seen  him  is  to  bring  to  bear  another  and  still 
more  powerful  set  of  motives  for  his  redemption. 

The  habit  of  grounding  his  social  message  in  the 
Scriptures  will,  therefore,  aid  the  preacher  mightily 
in  emphasizing  those  spiritual  values  which  are  at 
stake  in  the  industrial  struggle.  The  labor  question 
is  always  more  than  an  economic  question,  a  struggle 
as  to  hours  and  wages — it  is  preeminently  a  spiritual 
question  wherein  the  souls  of  men  made  in  the  like- 
ness and  image  of  God  are  at  stake.  Those  per- 
emptory notices  "  No  admittance  except  on  business  " 
must  come  down — other  weighty  considerations,  in 


66    SOCIAL  MESSAGE   OF  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

no  sense  financial,  must  be  permitted  to  enter  into 
the  determination  of  the  courses  of  action  which  bear 
upon  the  conduct  of  all  these  enterprises.  The  ques- 
tion as  to  what  are  the  profits  of  any  business  is  a 
proper  and  a  necessary  one,  but  that  other  question, 
as  to  what  kind  of  men  and  women  the  employes  are 
becoming  through  the  influences  imposed  upon  them 
by  the  conditions  of  their  toil,  takes  precedence  over 
any  question  of  profit.  Sabatier  has  truly  said, 
"  Sociologists  are  more  and  more  coming  to  the  con- 
clusion that  the  social  question  is  dependent  on  the 
moral  question ;  and  that  in  order  to  secure  the  reign 
of  justice  and  to  bring  about  universal  happiness, 
men  must  be  taught  to  conquer  selfishness  and  to 
love  one  another." 

It  is  a  universal  law  that  men  should  bear  one 
another's  burdens — any  effort  to  effect  a  permanent 
escape  from  that  obligation  is  as  futile  as  the  effort 
to  avoid  the  responsibilities  imposed  in  the  law  of 
gravitation.  It  is  a  universal  law  that  the  strong 
should  bear  the  infirmities  of  the  weak,  not  allowing 
them  to  be  crushed  by  disproportionate  burdens — 
society  must  accept  its  life,  if  it  is  to  continue  to  live 
at  all,  upon  those  terms.  It  is  a  universal  law  that 
we  are  all  members  one  of  another,  knit  up  in  a  sol- 
idarity of  interest  extending  from  the  least  to  the 
greatest  and  imposing  duties  which  are  coextensive 


ITS  SCRIPTURAL  BASIS  67 

with  human  existence.  All  this  the  Scripture  makes 
so  plain  that  these  are  but  the  commonplaces  of  Holy 
Writ.  In  phrasing  his  message  in  the  terms  of  Script- 
ure, therefore,  the  modern  prophet  will  he  delivered 
once  for  all  from  that  snare  of  selfish  materialism 
which  is  the  weakness  of  many  a  modern  social  effort. 
The  very  fact  that  Christendom,  under  the  stimu- 
lus and  guidance  of  these  scriptural  ideals,  has  made 
so  much  headway  in  its  climb  upward  out  of  moral 
barbarism,  indicates  that  when  the  social  principles 
of  the  Gospel  are  still  more  bravely  and  thoroughly 
applied  we  shall  be  the  joyous  witnesses  of  a  more 
splendid  advance.  "  The  fact  that  a  ship  is  already 
a  thousand  miles  at  sea  indicates  that  it  will  go  far- 
ther." There  are  many  things  now  which  a  respecta- 
ble capitalist  will  not  do.  He  will  not  shoot  down 
his  business  rival  in  cold  blood,  as  his  savage  ancestor 
would  have  done  to  the  man  who  thwarted  him  in  his 
plans.  He  will  not  poison  his  rival's  best  workmen 
nor  dynamite  his  plant  in  order  to  cripple  his  enter- 
prise. Now,  if  a  decent  regard  for  the  interests  of 
a  competitor  in  business  can  be  carried  thus  far,  it 
is  plain  that  it  can  be  carried  still  farther.  It  can 
be  enlarged  until  it  will  not  consent  to  make  profit 
by  exploiting  the  labor  of  children;  it  will  not,  for 
its  own  gain,  ruthlessly  destroy  a  weaker  man's  busi- 
ness ;  it  will  not  be  willing  to  maintain  conditions  of 


68    SOCIAL  MESSAGE   OF  THE  MODERN  PULPIT 

labor  which  involve  the  inevitable  degradation  of 
the  laborer.  It  is  simply  a  question  of  degree,  and 
those  same  Scriptures  which  have  shown  themselves 
a  store-house  of  moral  energy  can  be  depended  upon 
to  equip  men  for  a  social  regime  where  industry  shall 
be  ruled  by  a  more  enlightened  and  more  insistent 
moral  sense — a  regime  as  far  in  advance  of  present- 
day  methods  as  our  own  civilization  is  an  improve- 
ment upon  savagery. 

The  sublime  conception  of  a  redeemed  humanity 
which  shall  be  in  the  language  of  the  Bible  as  "  one 
body,"  with  the  Divine  Christ  as  its  Eternal  Head, 
has  never  been  surpassed.  This  ideal  contemplates 
a  state  of  society  so  unified  by  that  sense  of  intelli- 
gent, sympathetic  responsibility,  which  shall  perform 
the  function  of  a  nervous  system,  and  so  related  to 
Christ,  whose  mind  has  become  the  informing  prin- 
ciple of  its  life,  that  the  injury  or  the  interest  of 
each  member  shall  become  the  interest  of  all.  If 
you  should  venture  to  prod  a  lion  with  a  sharp  stick 
anywhere,  in  the  highest  and  most  sensitive  or  in 
the  lowest,  dullest  part  of  him,  you  would  have  the 
whole  force  of  the  lion  turned  upon  you  instantly  in 
defence  of  that  one  of  his  members  which  had  been 
made  to  suffer.  And  the  high  task  of  the  minister 
of  religion  is  to  aid  in  making  the  whole  fabric  of 
society  in  all  its  industrial,  political,  and  social  re- 


ITS  SCRIPTURAL  BASIS  69 

lations  so  truly  "  one  body  in  Christ "  by  reason  of 
its  thorough  permeation  with  intelligent  social  in- 
terest, that  all  its  members  shall  have  the  same  care 
one  for  another.  In  that  day  the  strong  will  gladly 
bear  the  infirmities  of  the  weak,  and  the  weak  will 
share  joyously  in  the  greater  effectiveness  of  strength. 
As  we  strive  together  for  the  realization  of  this  eter- 
nal purpose,  we  shall  indeed  prove  what  is  that  good 
and  acceptable  and  perfect  will  of  God  for  the  or- 
ganized life  of  men ! 


CHAPTEK   III 

THE   OPPBESSION   OF   A   PEOPLE 

IN  the  last  lecture  I  spoke  to  you  regarding  the  value 
of  a  biblical  basis  for  the  social  message.  In  order 
to  illustrate  this  method  of  using  ancient  Scripture, 
and  to  bring  out  as  well  the  real  content  of  the  book 
in  its  bearing  on  modern  social  problems,  I  wish  to 
take  up  with  you  now  in  several  lectures  the  Book  of 
Exodus,  dealing  with  it  entirely  on  the  sociological 
side.  This  book  might  not  inappropriately  be  called 
"  The  Story  of  an  Ancient  Labor  Movement  " — that 
title  would  serve  to  indicate  what  is  really  the  main 
theme  of  the  narrative. 

When  we  pass  from  the  first  book  in  the  Bible  to 
the  second,  we  leave  behind  us  the  stories  of  isolated 
individuals — we  take  up  the  history  of  a  race.  The 
Book  of  Genesis  is  mainly  a  series  of  personal  nar- 
ratives about  Adam  and  Noah,  Abraham  and  Isaac, 
Jacob  and  Joseph;  it  deals  with  the  fortunes  and 
misfortunes  of  individuals  and  families  considered 
quite  apart  from  the  intricate  relationships  of  a  more 
highly  organized  life.  But  when  we  turn  the  page 

70 


THE   OPPRESSION   OF   A  PEOPLE  71 

and  begin  the  study  of  Exodus,  we  find  that  it  enters 
immediately  into  the  consideration  of  the  relation 
of  God  to  the  industrial  and  political,  to  the  social 
and  religious  well-being  of  a  whole  people.  The 
whole  scope  of  the  book  is  therefore  broader  than 
that  of  Genesis,  the  main  interest  of  the  narrative 
attaching  as  it  does  to  the  working  out  of  certain 
social  problems.  Little  or  nothing  is  said  to  Moses, 
or,  indeed,  to  any  one,  regarding  his  individual  sal- 
vation; there  is  no  hint  or  promise  given  to  any  one 
of  any  personal  immortality;  the  message  of  God 
throughout  is  addressed  frankly  to  the  needs  of  the 
organized  life  of  those  early  Israelites. 

The  word  "  exodus "  means  literally  "  the  way 
out."  It  describes  the  methods  by  which  a  certain 
people  made  their  way  out — out  of  industrial  slavery 
into  industrial  freedom;  out  of  a  condition  which 
meant  the  defeat  of  what  is  best  in  life  into  a  condi- 
tion which  made  possible  happy  industry  and  beau- 
tiful home  life,  made  possible  the  rise  of  the  poet 
and  the  prophet,  and  really  paved  the  way  for  the 
rearing  of  that  splendid  stock  from  which  should 
spring  the  One  who,  as  Son  of  man,  has  become  the 
supreme  figure  in  human  history.  "  The  way  out," 
then,  the  freeing  and  training,  the  humanizing  and 
spiritualizing  of  a  whole  race  of  men,  who  at  the 
beginning  of  the  storj  were  the  slaves  of  Pharaoh — 


72    SOCIAL  MESSAGE   OF  THE  MODERN   PULPIT 

this  is  the  splendid  theme  of  the  Book  of  Exodus. 
Any  one  can  see  instantly  how  rich  such  a  book  may 
be  in  suggestive  symbolism  for  the  whole  movement 
toward  social  and  industrial  betterment  in  our  own 
time. 

It  is  profoundly  significant  that  this  second  book 
in  the  Bible  does  have  for  its  main  theme,  not 
individual  safety  and  culture  so  much  as  the  regen- 
eration of  an  entire  people  through  a  radical  modi- 
fication of  the  industrial  and  political  conditions 
under  which  they  lived.  The  compiler  of  the  narra- 
tive does  not  forget  the  importance  of  making  the 
inner  purpose  right,  but  he  is  also  profoundly  inter- 
ested in  the  bearing  of  environment  upon  character, 
and  he  is  particularly  insistent  upon  just  and  equita- 
ble relations  between  man  and  man.  It  has  often 
been  remarked  that  the  first  question  asked  in  the 
Bible  is,  "  Adam,  where  art  thou?  "  And  the  second 
question  is  like  unto  it,  the  other  half  of  it,  "  Cain, 
where  is  thy  brother  ?  "  Thus  the  great  God  who 
walked  in  the  garden  in  the  cool  of  the  day,  when 
the  shadows  of  evening  and  of  guilt  were  falling  to- 
gether across  the  pathway  of  His  erring  children, 
made  His  searching  inquiries  touching  the  two  fun- 
damental attitudes  of  men.  "  Where  art  thou  "  in 
thine  own  attitude  toward  God,  and  "  Where  is  thy 
brother  "  as  a  result  of  the  way  you  have  borne  your- 


THE  OPPRESSION  OF  A  PEOPLE  73 

self  toward  him — on  these  two  fundamental  inquiries 
hang  all  the  law  and  the  prophets ! 

I  shall  try,  then,  in  several  of  the  lectures  which 
are  to  follow,  to  tell  briefly  the  story  of  this  ancient 
labor  movement  as  recorded  in  the  Book  of  Exodus, 
and  so  to  interpret  it  as  to  show  its  bearing  upon 
modern  conditions.  I  shall  also  seek  to  indicate  the 
contribution  it  makes  to  that  social  appeal  which  the 
modern  pulpit  is  to  embody  in  its  total  message  to 
our  own  times.  And  in  the  consideration  of  the  es- 
sential teaching  of  this  book  I  wish  to  notice  first 
"  the  oppression  of  an  entire  people." 

"  There  arose  up  a  new  king  over  Egypt,  who  knew 
not  Joseph."  This  king  was  a  practical,  hard-headed 
man  of  affairs.  He  was  not  to  be  swerved  from  his 
course  by  any  unprofitable  sentiment.  "  Come,  now," 
he  said,  "  let  us  deal  wisely  with  them,  lest  they  mul- 
tiply and  fight  against  us."  Therefore  Pharaoh  "  did 
set  over  them  taskmasters  to  afflict  them  with  bur- 
dens. And  the  Egyptians  made  the  children  of  Israel 
to  serve  with  rigor,  and  they  made  their  lives  bitter 
with  hard  bondage." 

In  all  probability  we  can  walk  about  as  far  back 
into  ancient  history  with  sure  tread  and  solid  cer- 
tainty in  the  land  of  Egypt  as  in  any  other  land 
upon  the  globe.  Dean  Stanley,  in  his  well-known 
"  History  of  the  Jewish  Church,"  discusses  this  point 


74    SOCIAL  MESSAGE   OF  THE  MODERN   PULPIT 

at  considerable  length.  "  The  land  of  Egypt  is  to 
this  hour  rich  in  monuments  and  exhibits  of  its  an- 
cient life.  The  clear,  dry  climate,  the  nearness  of 
the  desert  sands  which  have  preserved  what  they 
overwhelmed,  the  passionate  desire  of  the  old  Egyp- 
tians to  perpetuate  every  familiar  and  loved  object 
as  long  as  human  power  and  skill  could  compass  it, 
have  all  contributed  to  this  result" 

The  preserving  and  embalming  customs  of  that  an- 
cient people  were  such  that  we  can  go  back  and  look 
upon  their  household  utensils  and  wall  decorations, 
their  toys  and  their  games,  their  articles  of  personal 
adornment  and  their  books.  We  can  even  go  back 
and  look  upon  the  very  forms  and  faces  of  those  men 
and  women  who  lived  and  died  forty  centuries  ago. 
Some  years  ago  when  I  stood  in  the  great  Gizeh  Mu- 
seum at  Cairo  looking  upon  the  mummied  face  and 
form  which  is  pronounced  by  eminent  archaeologists 
to  be  undoubtedly  that  of  Ramses  II,  the  Pharaoh 
of  the  oppression,  it  was  all  so  intensely  lifelike  that 
I  could  almost  see  the  wizened  face  frowning  in 
angry  refusal,  and  hear  the  dry  lips  breaking  their 
long  silence  to  say :  "  Who  is  the  Lord,  that  I  should 
obey  his  voice  and  let  Israel  go !  " 

The  references  to  the  presence  of  the  Hebrews  in 
Egypt  in  the  inscriptions  of  that  country  are  so 
scanty  and  uncertain  as  to  make  impossible  any  valu- 


THE  OPPRESSION   OF  A  PEOPLE  75 

able  corroboration  of  the  biblical  narrative  from  this 
source.  But  after  a  careful  sifting  of  all  the  evi- 
dence the  net  result  seems  to  be  about  this:  that 
there  was  a  sojourn  in  Egypt  of  uncertain  duration ; 
that  it  was  a  time  of  suffering  and  deprivation;  and 
that  the  fact  of  a  providential  deliverance  became  the 
great  political  and  religious  background  for  the  whole 
movement  of  growth  and  progress  among  the  Hebrew 
people. 

The  references  in  Exodus  to  the  scenes  and  cus- 
toms of  the  country  are  so  far  in  keeping  with  what 
we  know  of  ancient  Egypt  from  other  sources,  and 
the  impress  of  Egypt  upon  the  later  thought  and  life 
of  Israel  is  so  apparent,  that  we  have  abundant  and 
reliable  materials  for  study  in  these  narratives  of 
Exodus,  even  though  they  may  have  been  expanded, 
retouched,  and  edited  by  later  hands  in  the  interests 
of  theological  theory.  The  great  fact  of  an  oppres- 
sion is  there,  and  our  intimate  knowledge  of  what 
conscript  or  slave  labor  meant  in  those  ancient  mon- 
archies, intent  upon  huge  building  operations  for  the 
creation  of  such  treasure  cities  as  Pithom  and 
Ramses,  or  in  the  erection  of  such  regal  tombs  as 
the  Pyramids,  or  in  laying  together  the  mighty  walls 
of  their  cities,  enables  us  readily  to  picture  to  our- 
selves the  condition  of  these  children  of  Israel  in 
the  days  when  "  the  Egyptians  caused  them  to  serve 


76    SOCIAL  MESSAGE  OF  THE  MODERN  PULPIT 

with  rigor  and  made  their  lives  bitter  with  hard 
bondage." 

The  power  of  the  monarch  was  absolute ;  his  actual 
wealth  may  have  been  less  than  that  of  some  modern 
capitalist,  but  his  power  over  the  bodies  and  minds, 
over  the  lives  and  destinies  of  hundreds  and  thou- 
sands of  dependent  people,  through  his  control  of  the 
terms  and  conditions  of  their  existence,  was  simply 
absolute.  Human  life  was  cheap  and  abundant. 
The  great  building  operations,  which  are  the  wonder 
of  the  world  to  this  hour,  were  being  vigorously  car- 
ried forward  for  the  gratification  of  royal  pride; 
and,  as  a  result,  the  grinding  oppression  of  the  help- 
less poor  was  simply  inevitable.  There  was  on  their 
part,  too,  such  a  lack  of  intelligence  and  organiza- 
tion, such  a  lack  of  ambition  and  energy  sufficient  to 
remedy  their  status,  that  they  sank  down  defeated 
before  that  which  they  felt  was  too  great  and  too 
hard  to  be  changed. 

A  recent  lecturer  in  the  Lowell  Institute  at  Boston, 
fresh  from  his  studies  of  the  situation  along  the  Nile, 
has  thus  embodied  his  view  of  ancient  labor  condi- 
tions in  these  few  terse  sentences :  "  Here  in  Egypt 
are  the  tombs  of  kings,  stupendous  monuments  not 
alone  of  monarchical  glory  and  pride,  but  of  the  reck- 
less waste  of  innumerable  human  lives.  Deep  in 
the  sands  dug  a  myriad  of  slaves,  ignorant  of  every- 


THE   OPPRESSION   OF   A  PEOPLE  77 

thing  save  the  stern  necessity  of  yielding  up  every 
bit  of  strength  in  their  bodies,  and  every  last  gleam 
of  intelligence  in  their  minds,  to  the  demands  of  the 
king.  In  the  quarries,  on  the  roads,  and  on  the  walls 
for  scores  of  years  there  toiled  these  thousands  of 
men,  wageless  and  half-fed,  overworked  and  scourged, 
sick,  dizzy,  and  exhausted.  The  only  hospital  they 
knew  was  the  taskmaster's  whip,  which  stimulated 
into  one  last,  agonized  effort  the  exhausted  muscles 
of  a  used-up  body  or  the  frenzied  movement  of  a  reel- 
ing brain.  Whether  the  glory  of  the  monarch  de- 
manded the  speedy  completion  of  some  expression  of 
his  selfish  pride,  or  a  too  rapidly  growing  race  must 
be  reduced  to  manageable  proportions  without  mas- 
sacre, the  whole  picture  of  that  useless,  grinding  toil 
testifies  to  an  ugly,  wicked  contempt  for  human  life." 

Do  you  wonder,  then,  that  the  author  of  the 
Scripture  narrative,  seeing  it  all,  knowing  how  the 
Egyptians  forced  the  children  of  Israel  to  "  serve 
with  rigor  and  made  their  lives  bitter  with  hard 
bondage,"  came  to  believe  that  the  sight  of  it  touched 
the  heart  of  God  in  heaven  and  brought  from  Him, 
as  we  shall  see  later,  that  mighty  intervention  on 
their  behalf? 

And,  alas!  has  it  all  gone?  Would  that  all  thi« 
were  only  a  painful  chapter  of  far-away  history.  But 
you  can  strike  out  the  words  "  Egypt  "  and  "  Israel," 


78    SOCIAL  MESSAGE  OF  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

if  you  will,  and  read  the  sentences  I  have  just  quoted 
as  an  accurate  description  of  many  situations  in  the 
life  of  our  own  Republic.  Here  in  our  own  world 
of  modern  industry  the  prosperous  and  the  fortunate 
have  forced  many  of  the  children  of  America  to  serve 
with  rigor,  and  have  made  their  lives  bitter  with  hard 
bondage.  It  is  not  the  frightful  slavery  of  ancient 
Egypt,  or  of  Rome,  or  of  our  own  Southern  States 
a  generation  ago,  but  we  have  all  about  us  other  con- 
ditions which  jar  almost  as  harshly  upon  the  modern 
conscience,  made  sensitive  as  it  is  by  increased  atten- 
tion to  the  social  ideals  of  Jesus  Christ. 

Are  there  not  wage-slaves  among  us — the  main 
difference  being  that  their  virtual  owners  have  now 
been  freed  from  the  responsibility  of  caring  for  them 
when  they  are  sick  or  unemployed?  Are  there  not 
hundreds  of  weary  working-men,  taxed  steadily  be- 
yond their  strength,  wearing  out  before  their  time, 
receiving  far  less  than  an  equitable  share  of  the 
prosperity  they  help  to  create,  and  forced  by  necessity 
to  serve  with  rigor  ?  Are  there  not  hundreds  of  tired 
clerks  and  book-keepers,  insufficiently  paid,  working 
often  far  into  the  night,  in  close,  dark  quarters,  with 
abundance  of  bad  air,  sometimes  in  those  hideous 
little  "  upper  berths  "  of  offices  put  in  against  the 
ceiling  like  swallows'  nests  to  save  floor  space  and 
rent?  And  all  the  while  many  of  those  who  reap  the 


THE  OPPRESSION  OF  A  PEOPLE  79 

profit  from  this  exacting  labor  are  rejoicing  in  a 
useless  and  debilitating  luxury  which  is  made  pos- 
sible for  them  by  the  lack  of  equity  in  the  sharing 
of  the  profits  of  the  business.  Have  not  New  York 
and  Chicago  and  San  Francisco  something  to  say 
about  lives  made  bitter  with  hard  bondage,  as  well 
as  Thebes  and  Karnak  ?  Are  there  not  thousands  of 
breaker  boys  at  the  mines  in  Pennsylvania,  and  of 
bobbin  girls  in  the  cotton-mills  of  the  South,  and  of 
factory  hands,  both  men  and  women,  in  all  the  huge 
manufactories,  whose  physical  health  and  mental  un- 
folding, whose  spirit  of  hope  and  moral  stamina  are 
being  ruthlessly  undermined  by  the  grinding  demand 
for  large  profits  and  good  dividends,  in  order  to  swell 
still  further  the  most  extravagant  scale  of  ^ving,  on 
the  part  of  great  numbers  of  the  prosperous  members 
of  society,  which  this  world  has  ever  witnessed? 
Serving  with  vigor,  embittered  by  hard  bondage, 
driven  by  the  imperative  tale  of  bricks,  until  their 
hearts  fail  within  them  and  many  of  the  toilers  lapse 
into  a  dull,  sodden  state,  which  is  an  ugly  caricature 
of  what  human  existence  was  meant  to  be — is  not  all 
this  modern  experience  as  well  as  ancient  history? 

I  am  not  thinking  now  of  the  intemperate  denun- 
ciations uttered  by  some  noisy  street-corner  agitator, 
though  more  often  than  not  he  may  be  telling  that 
part  of  the  truth  which  he  sees  and  feels.  Take  the 


80    SOCIAL  MESSAGE  OF  THE  MODERN  PULPIT 

carefully  considered  words  of  competent  and  reliable 
men  who  have  patiently  investigated  the  situation. 
Read  Charles  Booth's  scientifically  accurate  and 
painstaking  volumes  on  "  The  Life  and  Labor  of  the 
People  of  London."  Read  the  chapters  of  "  Amer- 
ica's Working  Class,"  by  the  late  Charles  B.  Spahr, 
of  the  Outlook,  who  was  sent  out  by  that  paper  to 
observe  the  conditions  of  the  working-people  in  New 
England  and  Pennsylvania,  in  the  Southern  States, 
and  in  the  Middle  West.  Read  "  The  Present 
South,"  by  Edgar  Gardner  Murphy,  himself  a  South- 
ern man,  born,  educated,  and  reared  in  the  South, 
and  from  personal  observation  bearing  this  testi- 
mony :  "  I  have  seen  and  photographed  children  of 
six  and  seven  at  labor  in  our  factories  for  twelve  and 
thirteen  hours  a  day.  I  have  seen  them  with  their 
little  fingers  mangled  by  machinery  and  their  little 
bodies  limp  and  listless  with  exhaustion.  And  I  am 
not  willing  that  our  economic  progress  should  be 
involved  with  such  conditions,  or  that  our  important 
and  distinctive  industry  should  stand  in  such  moral 
and  economic  odium."  Read  Dr.  Peter  Roberts's 
book  "  The  Anthracite  Coal  Communities,"  which 
brings  before  us  a  sorry  picture  of  the  physical,  men- 
tal, and  moral  deterioration  which  is  going  on  in 
the  State  of  Pennsylvania  by  the  employment  of 
the  immature  in  and  about  the  coal  mines.  Read 


THE   OPPRESSION  OF  A  PEOPLE  81 

the  sombre  chapters  of  Kobert  Hunter's  book  on 
"  Poverty,"  the  materials  for  which  he  gathered  to 
a  considerable  extent  with  his  own  hands.  Read  the 
records  of  the  actual  facts  which  honest  men  and 
women  have  seen  with  their  eyes,  and  handled  with 
their  hands,  and  felt  in  their  own  quivering  flesh, 
as  they  have  shared  the  toil  of  struggling  thousands 
in  America  to-day,  and  if  you  are  not  made  of  stone 
you  will  again  hear  the  cry,  "  Forced  to  serve  with 
rigor ;  lives  embittered  with  hard  bondage !  "  And 
in  the  face  of  this  lack  of  any  real  opportunity  to 
maintain  health  and  hope,  to  work  with  joy  and 
courage,  to  grow  intellectually  or  to  gain  spiritual 
peace,  you  will  listen  closely  to  ascertain  if  the 
heavens  do  not  again  open  and  a  divine  voice  cry 
out  once  more :  "  Let  my  people  go,  that  they  may 
serve  me."  The  oppression  of  great  numbers  of  peo- 
ple, because  they  are  helpless  under  the  wheels  of 
a  huge  system,  has  not  ceased,  and  it  still  must  settle 
its  accounts  with  the  One  whose  sympathies  went 
out  to  those  struggling  Israelites  on  the  banks  of  the 
Nile,  and  there  became  effective  for  their  relief. 

The  reasons  for  this  ancient  oppression  are  made 
plain  by  the  narrator.  First,  there  was  a  demand 
for  cheap  labor  in  order  to  maintain  the  luxurious 
life  of  Pharaoh  and  his  nobles — a  social  principle 
which  has  been  in  constant  operation  from  that  day 


82    SOCIAL  MESSAGE   OF  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

to  this.  The  total  productive  power  of  the  race  nat- 
urally increases  as  machinery  and  new  inventions 
open  the  way,  but  it  is  always  definite  and  limited. 
It  is  easily  possible,  however,  under  an  equitable 
system  of  distribution  that  the  entire  right-minded, 
industrious  portion  of  the  race  should,  with  this  total 
product  of  their  toil,  be  comfortable  and  happy.  But 
where  one  family  insists  on  spending  a  hundred  thou- 
sand dollars  a  year  for  its  sustenance  and  pleasure, 
it  means  that  there  must  be  curtailment  somewhere 
else,  even  to  the  point  of  want  and  bitterness,  for  it 
would  be  impossible  to  show  that  this  single  family 
has  by  its  own  exertions  contributed  in  anything  like 
that  ratio  to  the  actual  production  of  wealth — it  is 
to  a  considerable  extent  exploiting  the  productive 
labor  of  others.  If,  then,  we  are  to  have  an  unrea- 
sonable and  unjust  extreme  of  luxury  at  one  end 
of  the  scale,  we  must  have  an  unreasonable  and  un- 
just extreme  of  penury  at  the  other  end.  The  heart- 
less luxury  and  the  consequent  demand  for  cheap 
labor  in  Egypt  thus  aided  in  reducing  the  Israelites 
to  the  sorry  condition  in  which  we  find  them  at  the 
opening  of  the  book. 

There  was  also,  we  are  told,  the  frankly  expressed 
desire  to  reduce  a  too  rapidly  growing  class  to  man- 
ageable proportions.  If  the  patient  beasts  of  burden 
in  human  society  had  taken  it  into  their  heads  to 


THE   OPPRESSION   OF   A  PEOPLE  83 

change  the  regime  which  saddled  them  with  burdens 
grievous  to  be  borne,  it  might  have  been  embarrass- 
ing to  those  who  were  only  too  willing  to  profit  by 
their  oppression.  Pharaoh  and  his  nobles  had  a 
vague  fear  of  those  sturdy  Hebrews,  who  were  then, 
as  now,  a  vital,  productive  race.  He  therefore  de- 
cided to  make  the  conditions  of  their  employment 
such  as  to  reduce  their  physical  vitality,  thus  redu- 
cing their  numbers  and  lessening  the  menace  they 
might  offer  upon  occasion  to  the  system  which  sup- 
ported him. 

But  more  fundamental  than  all  else  was  the  fact 
that  their  well-being  had  depended  solely  upon  per- 
sonal favor.  Joseph,  the  first  Hebrew  to  settle  in 
Egypt,  had  been  a  favorite  of  Pharaoh,  and  while 
he  lived  all  the  Hebrews  shared  in  that  good  fortune. 
"  But  Joseph  died,  and  all  that  generation,  and  a  new 
king  arose,  who  knew  not  Joseph."  Then,  because 
their  well-being  depended  on  personal  favor,  their  lot 
was  suddenly  changed,  and  they  found  themselves 
ground  under  the  rigor  imposed  by  the  Pharaoh  of 
the  oppression. 

Favor  on  personal  grounds  is  common  in  all  Ori- 
ental countries,  and  is  not  uncommon  in  other  lands, 
as  may  be  seen  in  the  bestowal  of  political  patronage 
where  civil-service  rules  have  not  been  applied,  or  in 
unregulated  industry  where  a  bad  night's  sleep  or 


84    SOCIAL  MESSAGE   OF  THE  MODERN   PULPIT 

a  fit  of  indigestion  on  the  part  of  some  superintendent 
may  cost  a  wage-earner  his  job;  and  everywhere  such 
a  situation  is  full  of  danger.  With  human  nature 
as  it  now  is  some  more  effective  system  for  securing 
justice  to  all  concerned,  some  court  of  appeal  or  fair- 
minded  tribunal,  where  both  parties  have  a  hearing, 
is  surely  demanded.  The  interests  of  the  working- 
people  are  never  sufficiently  safeguarded  where  em- 
ployment, the  chance  of  a  livelihood,  and  the  possi- 
bility of  advancement  are  habitually  given  or  with- 
held on  grounds  of  personal  favor,  as  is  the  case  in 
unorganized  and  unregulated  industry. 

The  effects  of  this  oppression  went  much  deeper 
than  the  mere  physical  suffering  involved.  It  is  sad 
enough  to  see  people  working  from  hard  necessity 
under  such  conditions  that  their  food  is  cheap  in 
quality  and  insufficient  in  quantity;  their  clothing 
hardly  sufficing  for  decency,  and  adding  little  or 
nothing  of  comfort  and  beauty ;  their  homes  unfit  to 
be  the  growing  places  for  little  children,  made  in 
the  image  of  God  but  rapidly  losing  the  divine  im- 
print All  this — the  insufficiency  of  food,  raiment, 
shelter — is  sad  enough,  but  sadder  still  is  the  fact 
that  the  human  spirit,  under  such  conditions,  loses 
its  spring  and  zest,  its  aspiration  and  hope.  It  be- 
comes dull,  sodden,  low;  it  grows  craven,  cowardly, 
abject  under  its  hard  lot;  it  comes  to  have  the  gait 


THE   OPPRESSION   OF   A  PEOPLE  85 

and  bearing  of  the  slave,  rather  than  that  of  the  free 
man.  The  hopeless  degradation  of  that  manhood, 
which  is  meant  to  shine  as  the  summit  and  glory  of 
creation,  the  highest  expression  of  Infinite  Power 
and  Wisdom — this  is  the  terrible  fact  about  indus- 
trial oppression! 

When  that  representative  of  the  Outlook,  Mr. 
Charles  B.  Spahr,  went  through  some  of  the  cotton- 
mills  of  JSTew  England  he  found  there,  working  with 
the  men  and  women,  hundreds  of  children,  some  of 
them  as  young  as  thirteen,  though  that  was  against 
the  published  rules;  but  to  his  surprise  he  saw  no 
men  apparently  older  than  forty  or  forty-five.  He 
remarked  upon  this  fact,  for  the  mills  had  been  in 
operation  many  years,  and  there  would  naturally 
have  been  a  percentage  of  older  operatives  in  these 
factories.  He  was  promptly  told  that  the  strain  was 
so  severe  that  men  were  worn  out  at  forty-five,  and 
being  no  longer  able  to  keep  the  pace  they  were  ruth- 
lessly thrown  aside.  They  then  either  had  to  seek 
other  employment,  which  was  hard  to  obtain  for  men 
of  forty-five  who  knew  nothing  but  the  cotton-mill, 
or  else  fall  back  upon  their  families.  In  the  latter 
event  one  of  two  things  happened — either  the  wife, 
usually  a  trifle  younger  than  her  husband  and  with 
nimbler  feminine  fingers,  took  his  place  in  the  fac- 
tory, while  the  husband  began  to  do  the  housework 


86    SOCIAL   MESSAGE   OF  THE  MODERN   PULPIT 

and  tend  the  children ;  or  else  his  children,  who  were 
old  enough  to  stand  at  the  spinners  and  the  looms, 
went  into  the  factory  to  support  him  by  their  un- 
timely labor,  when  they  ought  to  have  been  playing 
or  at  school.  An  idle  father,  whether  his  idleness  be 
enforced  or  voluntary,  and  a  wage-earning  child  are 
always  symptoms  of  an  abnormal  and  degraded  in- 
dustrial condition. 

Picture  it  to  yourselves!  The  demand  for  cheap 
goods  so  imperative,  the  insistence  upon  profits  for 
the  manufacturers  so  peremptory,  the  pace  of  in- 
dustry consequently  so  sharp,  that  men  are  frequently 
thrown  aside  at  forty-five !  They  are  thus  doomed 
to  a  premature  old  age,  in  which,  though  the  outward 
man  perish,  the  inward  man  is  not  renewed  day  by 
day.  A  well-known  superintendent  in  the  steel  in- 
dustry when  questioned  on  this  point  recently  bore 
similar  testimony  by  saying  frankly  and  bluntly: 
"  It  is  all  true.  The  way  we  have  to  rush  things  now 
makes  it  necessary  for  us  to  get  in  a  batch  of  men, 
work  them  out,  and  then  get  a  fresh  batch."  At 
the  very  time  when  their  manhood  ought  to  be  in  its 
glory,  the  men  in  those  cotton  factories  found  them- 
selves worn  out,  thrown  aside  for  nimbler-fingered 
women  and  children,  and  compelled  sorrowfully  to 
take  up  the  tasks  of  cooking  and  washing,  of  sweep- 
ing and  mending,  of  bringing  to  the  factory,  with 


THE   OPPRESSION   OF  A  PEOPLE  87 

shame  and  mortification  written  all  over  them,  the 
lunch  for  the  wife  and  children,  who  had  now  become 
the  real  bread-winners  of  the  family ! 

The  children  themselves,  meanwhile,  taken  from 
the  school-rooms,  where  they  might  be  studying,  and 
from  the  open  air,  where  they  might  be  playing,  are 
sent  to  breathe  cotton-waste  and  factory  dust,  to  in- 
hale the  odor  of  machine  oil,  and  to  labor  long  and 
weary  hours  amid  the  din  and  roar  of  clanking  looms ! 
What  type  of  human  being  will  such  a  process  ulti- 
mately produce?  Devouring  greed  is  here  making 
itself  the  enemy  of  the  entire  race  by  crushing  the 
tiny  seeds  of  its  future  life !  Such  a  system  saps  the 
toilers  of  all  joy  and  zest,  of  all  hope  and  cheer  of 
the  higher  sort;  it  leaves  them  a  lot  of  human  ma- 
chines finding  their  relief  and  relaxation  mainly  in 
the  grosser  indulgences  of  the  flesh,  for  so  long  as 
work  is  made  unnatural,  pleasures  will  be  unnatural 
too;  and  it  keeps  them  hopeless,  for  they  know  that 
erelong  they,  too,  will  be  cast  aside  before  their  time 
to  make  room  for  a  fresher  lot ! 

And  all  this  in  a  world  made  by  Him  whose  tender 
mercies  are  over  all  His  works,  who  intends  that 
every  little  child  shall  in  its  innocent  unfolding  be 
like  a  sample  and  foretaste  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven ! 
The  spiritual  tragedy  of  it  all  stands  out  naked  and 
ugly.  To  kill  a  child  quickly  with  poison  is  a  crime; 


88    SOCIAL  MESSAGE   OF  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

and  to  kill  a  child  slowly,  by  destroying  all  possibil- 
ity of  the  higher  physical,  mental,  and  spiritual  ef- 
fectiveness, through  the  greed  of  some  employer,  is 
also  a  crime,  whether  the  statute-books  say  so  or  not. 
The  farmer  has  sense  enough  and  conscience  enough 
not  to  put  the  burden  of  sustained  labor  on  his  im- 
mature colts  and  calves.  Shall  our  industrial  life 
care  more  for  the  beasts  of  the  field  than  it  does  for 
these  little  ones  for  whom  Christ  died? 

This  oppression  of  the  children  of  Israel  aided  in 
knitting  them  together  into  a  mutually  reliant  and 
indestructible  brotherhood.  There  is  no  fellowship 
in  the  world  like  the  fellowship  of  suffering.  Bur- 
dens borne  together  bring  a  solidarity  of  feeling 
thicker  than  the  kinship  of  blood.  Members  of  the 
Grand  Army  of  the  Republic  stand  together  to-day, 
strong-knit  in  their  fraternal  feeling  because  they 
have  marched  and  fought,  they  have  hungered  and 
suffered  together  in  a  common  cause.  The  cross  of 
Christ  has  become  the  leading  symbol  in  the  world's 
moral  history  and  the  rallying  point  of  its  holiest 
endeavor,  because  there  He  suffered  for  men;  and 
because  there  also  we  catch  the  sacrificial  spirit  which 
prompts  us  to  stand  beside  Him  in  the  great  task 
of  redeeming  the  world  from  wrong.  These  Hebrews, 
by  their  experience  of  a  common  oppression,  likewise 
received  a  baptism  of  suffering  which  bound  the 


THE  OPPRESSION  OF  A  PEOPLE  89 

hearts  of  that  race  into  a  wondrous  unity  which  en- 
dures to  this  hour,  though  for  twenty  centuries  they 
have  been  men  without  a  country.  By  burdens  borne 
together  there  was  begotten  a  class  sympathy,  a  loyal 
unity,  and  a  race  consciousness  which  would  have 
value  for  the  betterment  of  the  whole  group.  The 
narrow  individual  interests  and  rivalries  began  to 
seem  petty  in  the  presence  of  the  fraternal  spirit 
which  prompted  this  vaster  undertaking  for  the 
common  good,  in  the  face  of  this  broader  movement 
for  national  well-being.  Progress  was  being  made 
toward  the  day  when  the  common  consciousness  would 
be,  '  We  are  all  members  one  of  another,  and  if  one 
member  suffer  all  the  members  suffer  with  it.' 

This  sore  oppression  was  not  endured  without  re- 
monstrance from  the  toiling  people.  When  the  tale 
of  bricks  was  doubled  the  people  cried  to  Pharaoh: 
"  Wherefore  dealest  thou  thus  with  thy  servants  ?  " 
Nor  was  the  protest  voiced  alone  in  human  resent- 
ment; the  word  of  the  Lord  rang  out  to  Pharaoh, 
saying,  "  Let  my  people  go,  that  they  may  serve  me ! " 
This  divine  summons  was  more  fundamental  than  a 
mere  demand  that  the  people  receive  a  more  equita- 
ble share  of  the  results  of  their  toil  in  food,  clothing, 
and  other  material  advantages.  It  was  God's  word 
of  searching  rebuke  to  industrial  conditions  unjust 
and  degrading;  it  was  His  appeal  to  the  powerful  and 


90    SOCIAL  MESSAGE   OF  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

prosperous  class  which  was  responsible  for  those  con- 
ditions to  change  them;  and  it  was  also  the  procla- 
mation of  His  interest  in  and  His  purpose  for  each 
humble  toiler.  "  Let  my  people  go,  that  they  may 
serve  me  " — that  they  may  live  human  lives,  that 
they  may  have  homes  worthy  of  the  name,  that  they 
may  enjoy  the  social  and  intellectual,  the  civil  and 
spiritual  privileges  which  belong  to  normal  existence ! 
All  this  was  implied  in  that  divine  remonstrance. 

In  fact  the  very  heart  of  the  whole  industrial  ques- 
tion is  contained  in  that  brief  sentence  which  burst 
from  the  skies  and  fell  upon  the  astonished  ears  of 
Pharaoh,  the  oppressor.  The  divine  sympathy  is 
there — "  My  people !  "  Not  a  horde  of  nameless 
slaves,  the  property  of  an  irresponsible  monarch ;  not 
so  many  thousand  "  hands  "  herded  together  by  some 
careless  factory  owner ;  not  "  the  wage-earning  class  " 
of  some  chilly  economist,  but — "  My  people !  "  The 
divine  purpose  for  all  these  toilers  is  there — "  that 
they  may  serve  me."  It  lies  within  the  gracious  pur- 
pose of  God  that  every  life  born  into  the  world  should 
grow  tall  and  straight,  sound  and  clean,  by  the  con- 
secration of  its  powers  to  His  service.  And  the  di- 
vine demand  for  adequate  opportunity  is  also  there 
— "  Let  my  people  go,"  for  these  struggling  souls 
must  be  released  from  terms  so  hard  as  to  utterly 
defeat  the  divine  purpose  for  their  spiritual  unfold- 


THE   OPPRESSION   OF  A  PEOPLE  91 

ing.  In  all  the  earnest  appeals  of  poet  and  prophet, 
of  essayist  and  reformer,  in  modern  times,  I  find  no 
message  to  social  conditions  which  bears  upon  its 
face  more  clearly  the  divine  credential  than  that 
same  word  of  the  Lord  to  Pharaoh,  "  Let  my  people 
go,  that  they  may  serve  me !  " 

And  how  did  that  monarch  and  the  ruling  classes 
generally  receive  this  divine  remonstrance?  Did 
they  recognize  their  common  humanity  with  all  the 
struggling  millions  who  do  the  rough  work  of  the 
world  ?  Did  they  feel  an  instant  throb  of  sympathy 
for  those  hard-pressed  people,  with  brains  under  their 
hats,  thinking,  wondering,  wishing,  despairing;  with 
hearts  in  their  breasts  filled  with  hopes  and  fears, 
with  loves  and  hates  ?  Did  there  come  to  them  any 
sense  of  common  allegiance  to  Him  who  is  no  re- 
specter of  persons  or  of  classes  or  of  outward  condi- 
tions, but  who  is  intent,  ever  and  only,  on  the  pur- 
pose and  disposition  of  the  life  within?  Did  any 
sense  of  responsibility  to  the  One  Father,  who  has 
created  us  all,  impel  them  to  deal  fairly  and  humane- 
ly with  those  toiling  people  whose  lot  and  destiny 
were  at  their  mercy?  You  know  the  answer  which 
came  back  to  this  divine  remonstrance — an  indiffer- 
ent, heartless,  insolent  refusal ;  it  was :  "  Who  is 
the  Lord,  that  I  should  obey  his  voice  to  let  Israel 
go?" 


92    SOCIAL   MESSAGE   OF  THE   MODERN  PULPIT 

There  was  in  that  city  on  the  Nile  an  unjust 
judge,  who  neither  feared  God  nor  regarded  man. 
He  refused,  so  long  as  his  own  life  was  pleasant  and 
happy,  to  concern  himself  about  the  lot  of  those  toil- 
ers on  whose  patient,  bleeding  shoulders  rested  the 
great  industrial  structure  whose  advantages  he  mo- 
nopolized. And  when  the  wickedness  of  it  was  laid 
before  him  in  that  divine  protest,  the  insolent  reply 
was :  "  Who  is  the  Lord,  that  I  should  obey  his  voice 
to  let  Israel  go  ?  " 

The  inhumanity  of  it  sounds  a  thoroughly  brutal 
note.  Is  it  right,  between  man  and  man,  that  one 
class  of  people  should  live  as  slaves,  their  bodies, 
brains,  and  spirits  bought  and  sold,  used  and  abused 
by  the  whim  of  any  master  who  has  money  enough 
to  own  them,  in  order  that  another  class  of  people 
may  live  in  ease  and  luxury  ?  Is  that  right  ?  This 
was  the  question  God  asked  Pharaoh  in  Egypt,  and 
He  has  been  asking  it  all  down  the  centuries  since. 
It  has  taken  the  race  a  long  time  to  answer  it.  It 
was  not  answered  in  our  own  country  until  thousands 
of  men  went  down  to  Shiloh  and  Vicksburg,  to 
Antietam  and  Gettysburg,  to  answer  God's  solemn 
question,  "  Is  it  right  ?  "  And  there  amid  the  roar 
of  cannon  and  the  rattle  of  musketry,  the  answer 
went  up  that  it  was  not  right — the  social  condi- 
tions of  human  slavery  were  wrong  and  were  there- 


THE   OPPRESSION   OF  A  PEOPLE  93 

fore  banished  once  for  all  from  this  land  of  free- 
dom! 

But  is  it  right  to-day  that  one  man  should  give 
his  whole  life  and  the  lives  of  his  children,  as  soon 
as  they  are  old  enough  to  leave  school  and  work,  for 
a  bare  subsistence — for  a  tenth  or  a  twentieth,  it  may 
be,  of  what  is  recklessly  wasted  in  the  home  of  his 
employer  ?  Is  it  right  that  one  mortal  should  live 
in  a  useless  and  debilitating  luxury,  able  to  satisfy 
every  trifling  fancy,  while  many  of  those  whose  labor 
he  has  exploited,  every  whit  his  equals,  it  may  be, 
in  original  moral  endowment,  should  be  unable  to 
secure  the  bare  necessities  ?  Is  that  type  of  distribu- 
tion right  ?  The  same  great  God  who  discussed  eco- 
nomic questions  with  Pharaoh  on  the  banks  of  the 
Nile  thirty  odd  centuries  ago  is  still  pressing  home 
upon  the  consciences  of  people  to-day  that  same  vital 
question.  And  He  will  continue  to  press  it  home 
until  it,  too,  is  answered,  and  answered  right ! 

May  it  be  that  all  ears  shall  be  attentive  to  His 
call  and  all  hearts  responsive  to  the  approach  of  His 
Spirit,  so  that  this  question  may  not  be  answered  on 
the  field  of  battle,  or  in  terms  of  blood,  or  in  any 
violent  overthrow  of  the  institutions  of  society,  but 
answered,  rather,  in  the  peace  and  quiet  of  better 
industrial  methods,  gradually  and  steadily  intro- 
duced, in  the  reign  of  a  more  complete  justice  be- 


94    SOCIAL  MESSAGE  OF  THE  MODERN   PULPIT 

tween  man  and  man,  in  the  prevalence  of  a  more 
considerate  spirit  infused  into  all  those  activities 
which  yield  us  bread!  The  question  will  never  be 
withdrawn,  we  may  be  sure,  until  men  have  the 
courage  and  the  conscience  to  answer  it  right.  Cru- 
elty, inhumanity,  injustice,  when  they  become  plain, 
as  modern  literature  and  current  economic  discus- 
sion are  making  them  plain  to  us,  must  be  remedied 
and  corrected,  or  there  will  inevitably  fall  upon  us, 
too,  the  sore  plagues  of  God's  rebuke.  Pharaohs 
are  being  bred  to-day  in  modern  counting-rooms  as 
they  were  in  the  palaces  along  the  Nile;  and,  like 
their  ancient  predecessors,  many  of  them  are  heed- 
less of  the  voice  of  the  Spirit,  as  He  speaks  through 
the  cry  of  the  plain  people  whose  patient  labor  makes 
possible  their  showy  prosperity. 

It  is  as  dangerous  to-day  as  it  was  under  the  op- 
pression in  Egypt  for  any  man,  or  for  any  set  of 
men,  or  for  any  system,  to  stand  up  and  say,  "  Who 
is  the  Lord  that  we  should  let  these  people  go  into 
a  larger,  finer  life  ?  "  It  is  a  selfish,  heartless  course, 
and  one  certain  to  bring  disaster.  Those  lines  of 
action  which  spring  naturally  from  unmodified  self- 
interest  bring  in,  not  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  but 
the  kingdom  of  hell.  They  have  in  recent  years 
been  bringing  in  great  sections  of  it  in  our  own  land. 

This  same  old  note  of  inhumanity  is  heard  ever 


THE  OPPRESSION  OF  A  PEOPLE  95 

and  anon  in  our  modern  life.  Sometimes  it  falls 
from  the  lips  of  the  prosperous  indifferent;  some- 
times it  is  written  in  an  unjust  wage-scale;  some- 
times it  is  embodied  in  a  whole  system  of  produc- 
tion which  means  cruelty  to  the  helpless.  You  will 
find  instructive  testimony  on  this  point  in  the  writ- 
ings of  John  Graham  Brooks,  for  example,  one  of 
the  careful,  conservative  observers  of  labor  condi- 
tions, never  an  agitator,  yet  so  deeply  interested  in 
modern  problems  that  he  has  taken  pains  to  visit 
the  scene  of  every  important  coal  strike  for  the 
last  eighteen  years.  He  recently  made  a  study  also 
of  the  conditions  prevailing  in  the  Southern  cotton- 
mills,  and  he  has  given  us  an  account  of  this  inves- 
tigation. We  have  also  the  testimony  of  many  other 
competent  witnesses  regarding  the  same  matter,  and 
the  plain  facts  are  appalling  to  our  sense  of  justice 
and  humanity!  Troops  of  children,  many  of  them 
under  twelve  years  of  age,  are  dragged  out  of  their 
little  beds  to  have  their  meagre  breakfasts  hurried 
down  their  throats,  and  are  rushed  off  to  the  mill 
with  sleepy  eyes,  to  toil  amid  the  roar  of  machinery 
for  eleven  hours  a  day.  Their  homes  are  often  nar- 
row, dirty,  ill-smelling  sties,  on  the  edge  of  a  marsh, 
with  fever  and  malaria  stalking  across  the  threshold 
bringing  death  in  their  train.  The  pinched  and 
broken  little  waifs  look  up  sad-eyed  and  wistful, 


96    SOCIAL  MESSAGE   OF  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

making  their  mute  appeal  for  a  human  existence. 
And  when  the  owners  and  managers  of  the  mills 
were  asked  why  they  used  child-labor,  they  replied, 
"  We  have  to  do  it !  We  have  to  do  it  to  compete 
with  other  mills  and  keep  up  our  profits."  Last 
year  sixty  per  cent  of  the  operatives  in  the  spinning 
departments  of  the  cotton-mills  of  the  South  were 
under  sixteen  years  of  age.  In  North  Carolina  six- 
teen per  cent  of  them  were  under  fourteen,  and  at 
the  opening  of  the  year  there  were  in  all  the  South- 
ern cotton-mills  twenty  thousand  children  under 
twelve  years  of  age. 

And  on  those  ill-gotten  profits  the  owners  and 
managers  of  the  mills  were  living,  not  on  the  edge 
of  the  marsh  in  narrow,  filthy  quarters,  but  yonder, 
on  the  hills,  in  beauty  and  luxury;  trading  on  the 
blood  and  tears  of  children  under  twelve,  who  had 
been  thrust  forward  by  parents  willing  to  have  them 
there  because  their  own  wages  were  too  small  ade- 
quately to  support  the  family !  Is  that  right  ?  "  We 
have  to  do  it,"  they  said,  "  to  keep  our  profits  up!  " 
Who  is  the  Lord,  that  we  should  let  these  children 
go,  and  be  compelled  to  scale  down  our  own  luxuri- 
ous existence?  The  essential  note  of  the  two  re- 
plies, that  of  old  Pharaoh  and  that  of  such  a  modern 
mill-owner,  is  the  same — it  is  the  note  of  selfish, 
insolent  inhumanity! 


THE  OPPRESSION  OF  A  PEOPLE  97 

It  is  said,  in  attempted  extenuation  of  this  prac- 
tice, that  these  children  had  been  accustomed  to 
work  on  the  farms  from  which  they  came.  But 
it  is  one  thing  to  work  out  of  doors,  at  varied  tasks, 
with  the  intermissions  of  rainy  seasons  and  periods 
of  leisure  common  to  country  life,  with  the  com- 
panionship of  living  things  and  under  the  eye  of  a 
father;  it  is  quite  another  thing  to  engage  in  the 
stolid  and  unbroken  labor  of  a  factory.  As  one  man, 
who  had  witnessed  both,  has  well  said :  "  Letting 
your  own  children  work  for  you  is  a  very  different 
thing  from  letting  another  man  work  your  children." 
A  divine  law  is  grossly  violated  when  young  girls 
of  twelve  and  fourteen  and  sixteen  are  compelled 
to  stand  all  day  working  month  in  and  month  out 
without  interruption — a  divine  law  is  violated  which 
the  State  of  Alabama  did  not  enact,  and  which  it 
cannot  repeal.  And  in  view  of  the  fact  that  the 
future  vigor  of  that  portion  of  the  human  race  is 
there  being  determined,  society  cannot  afford  to  look 
with  indifference  upon  this  poisoning  of  the  stream 
of  human  life  at  its  source. 

You  will  find  the  same  spirit  of  inhumanity  also 
in  the  North,  for  selfishness  knows  no  Mason  and 
Dixon's  line.  In  the  fall  of  1902,  as  winter  came 
on,  we  were  fast  in  the  grip  of  the  great  coal  strike. 
It  had  been  on  for  months.  Cellars  were  empty. 


98    SOCIAL  MESSAGE   OF  THE   MODERN  PULPIT 

The  bins  of  the  coal  dealers  held  but  a  meagre  sup- 
ply. The  demand  for  coal  was  great;  the  price  was 
forced  up,  and  the  poor  people  of  New  York,  Chi- 
cago, and  other  large  cities  found  themselves  unable 
to  buy  coal  at  all.  They  were  doing  their  bit  of 
cooking  on  little  oil-stoves.  Some  of  them,  in  dark, 
chilly  rooms,  were  burning  these  stoves  day  and 
night  to  protect  their  shivering  children  from  the 
cold.  Everywhere  among  the  poor  the  little  coal- 
oil  stove  was  pressed  into  service  because  it  was 
cheaper  than  coal. 

Then  just  at  that  juncture  the  men  who  control 
that  mighty  organization  known  as  the  Standard  Oil 
Company  caused  the  price  of  coal-oil  to  be  advanced. 
There  was  not  even  the  pretence  of  a  claim  that 
this  was  necessary  because  of  an  increase  in  the  cost 
of  producing  the  oil.  The  market  was  keen;  the 
people,  especially  the  poor,  had  to  have  it,  because 
coal  was  not  to  be  had,  and  there  was  a  clear  chance 
to  add  several  extra  millions  to  the  annual  profits 
of  the  Standard  Oil  Company;  and  so  the  price  was 
advanced.  You  will  recall  the  angry  protest  which 
instantly  went  up  all  over  the  land  from  secular 
and  religious  papers  alike,  but  the  higher  price  re- 
mained, and  the  children  of  the  poor  were  thrust  that 
much  closer  to  the  peril  of  unheated  rooms  and  of 
uncooked  food!  Indifference,  inhumanity,  cruelty 


THE  OPPRESSION  OF  A  PEOPLE  99 

to  the  helpless — alas,  they  are  not  ancient  history, 
for  the  advance  in  the  price  of  coal-oil  was  but  a 
modern  echo  of  Pharaoh's  words,  l  Who  is  the  Lord, 
that  I  should  obey  his  voice  and  let  these  peo- 
ple go  ? ' 

We  are  informed  by  those  who  have  utilized  the 
statistics  carefully  gathered  by  men  and  women  who 
are  working  in  the  East  End  of  London  in  connec- 
tion with  the  University  and  Social  Settlements,  that 
there  are  at  least  eight  hundred  thousand  people 
there  who  are  habitually  underfed.  These  unfor- 
tunates never  know  from  year's  end  to  year's  end 
the  joy  and  strength  of  three  full  meals  in  one  day. 
Because  of  this  they  are  losing  health  and  ambition; 
they  are  losing  intelligence  and  effectiveness;  they 
are  dropping  down  into  the  abyss.  And  meanwhile, 
there  are,  also,  more  than  a  hundred  thousand  able- 
bodied  men  in  England  who  put  themselves  down  in 
the  census  as  of  "  No  occupation."  They  work  at 
nothing;  they  are  living,  many  of  them,  on  heredi- 
tary estates,  dwelling  in  noble  city  palaces  and  in 
lovely  country  seats  surrounded  by  acres  and  acres 
of  park  and  game  preserve,  taking  their  lordly  pleas- 
ure, while  thousands  of  their  fellow-Englishmen  are 
starving — starving  when  they  might  be  living  by  the 
cultivation  of  that  very  land  held  as  game  preserve 
for  the  amusement  of  many  useless  idlers!  Picture 


100     SOCIAL  MESSAGE   OF  THE  MODERN  PULPIT 

to  yourselves  the  cold-blooded,  insolent  inhumanity 
of  it !  Sumptuous  idleness  standing  over  against  the 
actual  starvation  of  ill-requited  toil! 

I  talked  once  with  a  gentleman  who  stood  on  the 
streets  of  Manchester,  England,  peeling  an  orange, 
and  when  he  flung  away  the  peel  it  was  instantly 
seized  upon  by  hungry  children  and  greedily  eaten 
before  his  eyes.  Earlier  in  the  day  he  had  stood  at 
the  entrance  of  one  of  the  great  mills  and  had  seen 
the  mothers  of  some  of  these  same  children  hand 
in  their  infants  at  the  door  of  a  creche  to  pass  into 
the  mill  to  work  for  ten  hours,  receiving  their  in- 
fants back  at  the  close  of  the  day  to  carry  them  away 
to  such  wretched  homes  as  factory  wages  enabled 
them  to  maintain.  What  sort  of  people  would  that 
type  of  housekeeping  eventually  produce  ?  And  what 
sort  of  character  was  growing  in  the  lives  of  their 
employers  who  were  living  on  the  profits  of  that 
system  in  palaces  which  he  also  visited,  palaces  which 
would  have  been  appropriate  for  the  kings  and 
queens  of  an  earlier  generation? 

With  his  contemptuous  refusal  of  justice  to  the 
helpless  Israelites  Pharaoh  also  coupled  this  further 
heartless  statement:  "Ye  are  idle;  ye  are  idle."  It 
was  quite  in  the  vein  of  that  modern  reproach  ut- 
tered now  and  then  to  the  unfortunate  poor:  "  You 
don't  work.  You  don't  want  to  work.  You  are  not 


THE  OPPRESSION  OF  A  PEOPLE  101 

thrifty;  it  is  your  own  fault  that  you  do  not  suc- 
ceed." 

We  have  all  heard  at  one  time  or  another  such  un- 
sympathetic words  from  the  lips  of  prosperous  selfish- 
ness; and  we  have  heard  men  say  that  any  indus- 
trious man  who  really  wants  work  can  always  get 
it.  It  is  a  statement  which  in  vast  numbers  of  cases 
goes  wide  of  the  mark.  As  pastor  of  a  large  city 
church  I  have  more  personal  friends  among  the  em- 
ployers of  labor  than  has  the  average  wage-earner — 
a  great  many  more — and  any  one  of  them  would 
count  it  a  pleasure  to  do  me  a  favor.  Yet  with  all 
this,  I  have  often  tramped  about  for  half  a  day  at 
a  time  to  get  employment  for  some  man  out  of  work, 
and  have  come  back  in  the  evening  as  heavy-hearted 
as  he  was,  to  tell  him  I  had  failed.  The  door  to 
employment  does  not  stand  forever  open,  nor  does  it 
always  swing  easily  on  its  hinges  at  the  touch  of 
willing  industry.  "  Modern  life  has  no  more  tragic 
figure  than  the  gaunt,  hungry  laborer  wandering 
about  the  great  centres  of  industry  and  wealth,  beg- 
ging for  permission  to  share  in  that  industry  and  to 
contribute  to  that  wealth,  asking  in  return  not  the 
luxuries  or  even  the  comforts  of  civilized  life,  but 
only  such  rough  food  and  shelter  for  himself  and 
family  as  would  be  practically  assured  to  him  in  the 
rudest  form  of  savage  society."  To  reproach  all  the 


102    SOCIAL  MESSAGE   OF  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

unemployed  with  the  charge  of  laziness  and  unwill- 
ingness to  work  is  often  nothing  better  than  inhu- 
man insolence.  The  working-people  have  their 
faults,  for  they  are  human  beings  like  the  rest  of 
us,  but  the  marvel  is,  that  handicapped  as  so  many 
of  them  often  are,  they  make  such  a  brave  attempt 
at  honest,  self-supporting,  self-respecting  lives. 

The  inhumanity  in  modern  life  does  not  spring 
so  much  from  any  personal  hard-heartedness  as  from 
the  peremptory  demands  of  a  system.  Man  to  man, 
there  never  was  so  much  genuine  kindness  on  earth 
as  there  is  right  now.  It  is  never  difficult  to  get 
money  to  relieve  a  case  of  actual  suffering — the  dif- 
ficulty is  in  securing  that  intelligent  and  persistent 
attention  to  those  better  industrial  methods  which 
will  obviate  a  large  percentage  of  the  poverty  and 
distress.  Those  men  who  are  striving  to  conduct 
their  business  enterprises  in  the  spirit  of  Christian 
humanity — and  there  are  many  of  them — are  con- 
stantly hindered  in  their  more  generous  purposes  by 
the  ruthless  competition  of  those  to  whom  "  business 
is  business,"  while  conscience  and  the  higher  laws  of 
right  are  quite  another  matter.  Back  of  the  manu- 
facturer, who  feels  compelled  to  fill  his  factory  with 
the  cheap  labor  of  women  and  children,  is  the  whole- 
saler urging  him  to  sell  his  goods  cheap  or  he  will 
buy  elsewhere.  And  back  of  the  wholesaler  is  the 


THE   OPPRESSION   OF  A  PEOPLE  103 

retailer,  and  "  back  of  them  all,  the  careless,  bargain- 
hunting  public,  throwing  its  whole  weight  into  the 
effort  to  keep  prices  down."  And  yonder,  where  all 
these  cheap  things  are  produced,  life  grows  cheap, 
and  the  shocking  inhumanity  of  the  system  becomes 
a  reproach  to  our  modern  civilization. 

It  is  the  clear  duty  of  every  one  who  has  awak- 
ened to  his  social  responsibility  to  set  himself  against 
the  whole  spirit  of  such  a  system.  The  useful  ser- 
vice rendered  by  the  Consumers'  League,  which  has 
done  so  much  to  make  the  buying  public  conscious 
of  the  moral  issues  involved  in  the  exercise  of  its 
purchasing  power  and  to  organize  it  in  such  a  way 
as  to  make  its  influence  felt  in  the  discouragement 
of  unwholesome  methods  of  production,  is  a  signifi- 
cant and  hopeful  symptom  in  our  modern  life.  We 
do  not  want  to  wear  shirts,  for  example,  from  the 
bargain  counter,  no  matter  how  cheaply  we  can  buy 
them,  if  the  cotton  was  spun  by  children  who  ought 
to  have  been  studying  at  school  or  playing  in  the 
open  air;  if  the  shirts  themselves  were  made  by  tired 
factory  girls,  huddled  together  in  close  quarters,  and 
working  long  hours  at  a  dying  wage;  if  the  shirts 
are  sold  over  counters  by  girls  in  a  department-store, 
kept  on  such  a  close  margin  of  wages  as  to  make 
the  temptation  to  a  life  of  shame  stand  before  them 
as  a  constant  and  alluring  alternative.  We  cannot 


104    SOCIAL  MESSAGE  OF  THE  MODERN  PULPIT 

consent  to  clothe  ourselves,  however  small  may  be 
the  expense  of  it,  upon  the  blood  and  tears  of  those 
who  have  been  robbed  and  harmed  by  the  effort  to 
produce  the  clothing  cheap.  We  cannot  become 
partners  in  Pharaoh's  inhumanity  and  say :  "  Who 
are  all  these  unknown  workers,  that  we  should  care 
for  them?" 

This  sense  of  social  responsibility  is  certainly  on 
the  increase,  and  it  is  becoming  a  factor  which  must 
be  increasingly  reckoned  with  even  by  the  high  and 
dry  economists  who  profess  themselves  to  be  "  un- 
touched by  sentiment "  in  their  scientific  study  of 
"  the  reign  of  economic  law."  In  the  words  of 
Owen  R.  Love  joy,  "  We  are  beginning  to  learn  that 
nothing  is  produced  for  our  convenience  and  com- 
fort without  sacrifice  somewhere  in  the  process. 
Society  is  rising  from  the  plane  in  which  a  cash 
payment  for  goods  was  regarded  as  the  final  dis- 
charge of  obligation,  and  is  coming  to  recognize  that 
we  have  not  discharged  all  our  duty  or  made  full 
payment  for  the  goods  until  we  have  done  our  ut- 
most to  secure  to  every  person  engaged  in  their 
preparation  a  fair  reward  for  service,  a  full  share 
of  liberty,  and  an  adequate  opportunity  for  the  com- 
plete development  of  body  and  mind  to  a  symmetri- 
cal maturity.  That  the  individual  can  fulfil  this 
social  obligation  alone  is  not  expected,  but  that  so- 


THE  OPPRESSION  OF  A  PEOPLE  105 

ciety  must  discover  methods  by  which  we  can  be 
fed  and  clothed  and  warmed  without  oppression  or 
injustice,  is  fundamental  to  democracy." 

But  there  was,  furthermore,  an  element  of  actual 
blasphemy  in  Pharaoh's  scornful  reply  to  the  divine 
remonstrance.  The  haughty  monarch  bade  defiance 
to  the  whole  system  of  moral  and  spiritual  values, 
which  was  being  outraged  by  his  course  of  action. 
He  hurled  his  contempt  at  the  One  who  bends  His 
omnipotent  energy  to  the  production  of  higher 
types  of  men  and  women.  He  spurned  the  divine 
capacity  in  man — the  presence  of  Immanuel,  God 
with  us,  working  within  men  for  their  redemption — 
when  he  thus  uttered  his  insulting  refusal.  The 
very  discontent  which  fired  the  hearts  of  those  Is- 
raelites with  the  hope  of  something  better  was  from 
God.  "  Blessed  are  they  that  hunger  " — hunger 
after  righteousness  or  hunger  after  anything  which 
means  a  more  abundant  life — the  hunger  itself  is 
evidence  of  the  pressure  of  the  divine  Spirit  from 
within:  it  shows  the  real  capacity  of  the  man  rising 
into  self-consciousness.  When  Pharaoh  uttered  his 
contemptuous  refusal  to  this  divinely  produced  dis- 
content in  the  hearts  of  the  oppressed,  which  was 
impelling  them  to  seek  a  finer,  fuller  life,  it  was, 
therefore,  akin  to  blasphemy. 

"Who  is  the  Lord?"  he  said:  "I  know  not  the 


106     SOCIAL  MESSAGE   OF  THE  MODERN   PULPIT 

Lord!  "  His  blunt  statement  was  fearfully  accurate. 
Pharaoh  was  unacquainted  with  the  Lord,  who 
speaks  through  that  prophetic  discontent  which  ar- 
rays itself  against  wrong  industrial  methods,  who 
speaks  in  the  terms  of  social  unrest  among  the  toil- 
ing people,  who  speaks  in  the  very  look  of  the  wist- 
ful lives  foredoomed  to  failure  by  the  conditions 
of  their  existence.  "  Who  is  the  Lord?  I  know  not 
the  Lord,"  and  by  that  haughty  confession  the  mon- 
arch was  already  predicting  his  speedy  downfall.  If 
you  listen  closely  you  can  almost  hear  the  approach 
of  those  waves  of  divine  judgment  which  were  to 
sweep  over  Pharaoh  and  his  host,  swallowing  up 
horse  and  rider  in  complete  disaster,  because  of  his 
guilty  injustice. 

The  mind  at  this  point  naturally  runs  ahead  to 
that  great  judgment  scene  portrayed  by  Christ. 
Jesus  pictured  Himself  as  sitting  upon  His  throne, 
saying  to  the  multitude  on  His  left  hand :  "  I  was 
an  hungered  and  ye  gave  me  no  meat ;  naked  and  ye 
clothed  me  not ;  sick  and  in  prison  and  ye  visited  me 
not.  I  was  a  stranger  and  ye  took  me  not  in."  And 
then  in  almost  indignant  surprise,  they  cried :  "  Lord, 
when  saw  we  thee  an  hungered  ...  or  naked,  or  sick 
or  a  stranger  or  in  prison  and  ministered  not  unto 
Thee  ?  "  They,  too,  knew  not  the  Lord — they  knew 
not  the  Lord,  who  had  appeared  to  them  and  appealed 


THE   OPPRESSION   OF  A  PEOPLE  107 

to  them  in  the  common  want,  in  the  oft-recurring 
necessities  of  the  plain  people.  And  Jesus  answered 
them,  "  Inasmuch  as  ye  did  it  not  to  one  of  the  least 
of  these,  ye  did  it  not  to  me."  "  Depart  from  me; 
I  never  knew  you." 

"  I  know  not  the  Lord,"  said  Pharaoh  of  old. 
"  We  knew  not  the  Lord,"  said  the  selfish  multitude 
standing  condemned  in  the  day  of  judgment  because 
they  had  not  heard  the  call  of  Christ  in  the  needs 
of  the  many.  And  the  heartless  people  of  our  own 
day  who  fail  to  discern  in  the  wistful  faces  of  the 
helpless  poor  the  beseeching  face  of  the  Master 
Himself,  are,  by  their  course  of  action,  standing  in 
the  same  perilous  attitude.  Inevitably  in  the  hour 
of  judgment  there  must  come  back  to  them  that  same 
solemn  word  of  condemnation :  "  Depart  from  me ; 
I  never  knew  you." 

When  any  man  in  the  pleasant  prosperity  of  his 
own  life  reaches  the  point  where  he  can  look  out 
upon  the  want  and  pain  of  the  world,  upon  the  failure 
and  degradation  of  whole  classes  in  society,  upon 
the  blind  struggles  of  the  unskilled,  unorganized 
hewers  of  wood  and  drawers  of  water,  upon  the 
countless  multitudes  of  plain  folk  defeated  in  the 
better  impulses  of  their  natures  by  conditions  too 
hard  for  them — when  any  man  reaches  the  point 
where  he  can  see  all  this  unmoved  and  not  hear 


108    SOCIAL  MESSAGE  OF  THE  MODERN  PULPIT 

sounding  through  it  a  divine  protest  and  a  divine 
appeal,  he  may  know  of  a  certainty  that  he  is  in 
moral  peril!  If  he  can  witness  all  this  and  yet  not 
know  the  Lord,  who  is  speaking  now  to  the  hearts 
of  men  through  just  such  appeals,  he  is  already 
moving  swiftly  to  that  place  of  divine  judgment 
where  that  Lord  of  all  the  earth  may  say  to  him, 
1 1  never  knew  you.  Inasmuch  as  ye  labored  not  to 
change  the  lot  of  these  oppressed  people  ye  labored 
not  for  ma/ 


CHAPTER   IY 

THE    CALL    OF    AN    INDUSTBIAL    DELIVEBER 

IN  the  last  lecture  I  sought  to  bring  before  you  in 
modern  terms  a  picture  of  the  sore  oppression  of 
those  ancient  Hebrews.  The  Egyptians  had  forced 
the  children  of  Israel  to  serve  with  rigor;  the  un- 
feeling taskmasters  had  made  their  lives  bitter  with 
hard  bondage,  until  all  the  finer  features  of  their 
humanity  were  being  marred  and  blurred  under  that 
system  of  cheap  slave-labor  which  held  them  in  its 
grip.  They  were  becoming  dull,  unaspiring,  de- 
spondent cogs  in  the  great  wheels  of  an  industrial 
machine  too  huge  and  too  hard  to  be  successfully 
opposed  by  any  resistance  which  they  could  offer. 

Their  sad  condition  made  strong  appeal  to  the 
humane  hearts  of  all  sympathetic  observers,  and  it 
also  touched  the  heart  of  God.  Indeed,  were  not 
this  story  of  an  ancient  labor  movement  to  be  found 
somewhere  upon  the  pages  of  Holy  Writ,  we  should 
be  conscious  of  a  serious  omission  in  the  biblical 
portrayal  of  the  divine  character.  The  claim  is  con- 
fidently made  that  God's  tender  mercies  are  over 
all  His  works;  and  thoughtful  men  would  demand 

109 


110     SOCIAL  MESSAGE   OF  THE  MODERN   PULPIT 

visible  evidence  of  it  in  some  clear  picture  of  the 
divine  love  planning,  moving,  leading  the  way  for 
just  such  an  industrial  deliverance  as  is  outlined  in 
this  Book  of  Exodus.  And  inasmuch  as  God  works 
habitually  through  human  agents,  we  come  natu- 
rally, therefore,  at  this  point  in  the  record,  to  the 
call  of  a  deliverer. 

The  events  which  led  immediately  to  the  call  of 
a  leader  in  this  movement  for  industrial  freedom 
are  well  known.  The  monarch  of  Egypt,  alarmed 
by  the  too  rapidly  multiplying  race  of  slaves,  and 
fearing  the  result  of  an  uprising  should  an  outbreak 
occur  when  Egypt  might  be  engaged  in  foreign  war, 
issued  a  decree  that  for  a  given  period  all  the  male 
children  of  these  Hebrew  slaves  should  be  killed  at 
birth.  The  execution  of  this  fearful  edict  carried 
anguish  far  and  wide,  for  the  poor  woman  suffers 
when  her  baby  dies  exactly  as  does  the  rich  woman. 
But  the  mother  of  one  promising  baby  boy  suc- 
ceeded in  preserving  the  life  of  her  child  by  a  skil- 
ful appeal  to  the  sympathies  of  Pharaoh's  daughter. 
It  was  arranged  that  the  princess  should  find  the 
smiling  infant  in  an  ark  of  bulrushes  floating  upon 
the  bosom  of  the  sacred  Nile.  Her  womanly  sympa- 
thies having  been  thus  enlisted,  she  was  induced  to 
give  her  royal  permission  to  the  mother  of  the  babe 
to  keep  him  and  to  nurse  him  under  her  direction. 


CALL  OF   AN   INDUSTRIAL   DELIVERER       HI 

In  the  mind  of  an  Egyptian  the  Nile  was  no  ordi- 
nary river — it  was,  as  Stanley  said,  "  sacred,  benefi- 
cent, solitary,  the  very  life  of  the  state,  the  source 
of  all  fertility."  Many  devout  Egyptians  all  but 
worshipped  it.  This  Nile  child,  then,  "  drawn  out " 
of  the  water,  as  one  of  the  possible  derivations  of  his 
name  might  suggest,  at  the  command  of  the  prin- 
cess, became  the  object  of  royal  favor.  And  when 
he  grew  older  he  was  adopted  as  the  son  of  Pharaoh's 
daughter,  and  was  brought  up  at  the  court  of  the 
king. 

But,  amid  all  the  pleasant  advantages  of  his  new 
surroundings,  his  heart  beat  true  to  his  own  class. 
Moses  was  ever  a  Hebrew,  and  his  own  personal 
escape  from  their  hard  lot  did  not  for  one  moment 
stifle  his  native  sympathies.  It  will  be  remembered 
that  in  his  early  manhood  he  once  saw  an  Egyptian 
taskmaster  beating  a  Hebrew  slave.  Race  loyalty 
and  class  feeling,  instant  sympathy  with  the  op- 
pressed, and  that  genuinely  democratic  spirit  which 
ever  characterized  him,  were  strong  and  warm  within 
his  breast.  He  sprang  instantly  upon  the  oppressor, 
and  in  the  hot  anger  of  his  resentment  actually 
killed  the  fellow !  The  report  of  this  bold  act  spread 
rapidly  through  the  city  and  soon  came  to  the  ears 
of  the  monarch.  Pharaoh  knew  that  a  single  act 
of  successful  violence  might  start  a  revolt,  and  he 


112     SOCIAL  MESSAGE  OF  THE  MODERN   PULPIT 

therefore  gave  instant  command  that  Moses  be  slain. 
Then  this  warm-hearted  champion  of  the  rights  of 
the  people  was  compelled  to  flee  for  his  life.  Out 
through  the  desert  he  went,  and  on  to  the  quiet  land 
of  Midian,  in  the  peninsula  of  Sinai,  seeking  safety 
from  the  vengeance  of  the  king. 

Here,  in  this  quiet  retreat  in  Midian,  he  was  em- 
ployed by  a  Kenite  sheep-grower  named  Jethro. 
Moses  kept  his  master's  flocks,  and  finally,  quite  in 
the  vein  of  a  modern  story,  he  married  one  of  his 
employer's  daughters.  He  continued  in  this  simple, 
pastoral,  outdoor  life  for  a  series  of  years,  yet  never 
for  a  moment  did  he  forget  the  sorrows  and  afflic- 
tions of  those  Hebrew  slaves  toiling  yonder  on  the 
banks  of  the  Nile.  But  how  he,  a  lone  shepherd, 
could  do  anything  to  change  their  lot  or  offer  any 
successful  resistance  to  the  huge  system  which  lay 
heavily  upon  them  all,  he  was  unable  to  see.  He  felt 
very  much  as  many  an  honest  man  feels  to-day  when 
he  reads  Jacob  Riis's  "  How  the  Other  Half  Lives," 
or  London's  "  People  of  the  Abyss,"  or  John 
Graham  Brooks's  "  The  Social  Unrest  " — it  seems 
horrible  beyond  measure,  but  what  can  he  do 
about  it? 

Such  a  generous  impulse,  however,  once  kindled 
in  the  breast  of  a  brave  man  is  never  forgotten  by 
the  God  who  has  all  these  sacred  interests  within 


CALL  OF  AN   INDUSTRIAL   DELIVERER       113 

His  holy  keeping.  When  Abraham  Lincoln  was  a 
young  man  in  Illinois,  he  went  down  the  river  to  the 
city  of  New  Orleans  on  business.  While  there  he 
visited  a  slave-market.  He  saw  a  red-faced,  burly 
auctioneer  selling  a  comely  young  mulatto  woman, 
who  stood  trembling  upon  the  block.  The  girl  looked 
out  into  the  eyes  of  a  lot  of  human  sharks,  who 
stood  there  waiting  to  bid  on  her  and  to  buy  her, 
as  she  well  knew,  to  her  lasting  shame.  "  Step  right 
up  and  examine  her,  gentlemen,  if  you  wish,"  bawled 
out  the  auctioneer.  "  I  never  have  any  secrets  from 
my  customers."  And  the  strong,  pure  soul  of  Lin- 
coln writhed  in  moral  anguish  as  he  saw  the  ugly 
sight.  He  looked  up  to  heaven,  as  he  tells  us  later, 
and  in  silent  determination  breathed  out  his  vow: 
"  Great  God,  if  I  ever  have  a  chance  to  hit  that 
thing,  I'll  hit  it  hard!  " 

Years  passed  before  the  chance  came,  but  the  Al- 
mighty never  forgets  the  splendid  vows  of  uncalcu- 
lating  young  souls.  God  moved  this  young  man  on 
in  his  profession,  on  through  the  early  struggles  in 
the  political  life  of  his  own  State,  on  through  his 
antislavery  speeches  in  the  Douglas  debates,  on  up 
to  the  Wigwam  Convention  in  Chicago,  and  on  to 
the  White  House!  And,  finally,  the  hour  struck  in 
1863;  the  skies,  o'erclouded  by  dark  war,' seemed  to 
clear  for  a  moment,  and  the  Emancipation  Procla- 


114     SOCIAL  MESSAGE   OF  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

mation  shone  out.  Abraham  Lincoln  hit  it  hard,  and 
that  Proclamation,  sustained  and  reenforced  by  the 
consecrated  valor  of  thousands  of  brave  men,  caused 
the  shackles  to  fall  from  the  legs  and  arms,  from  the 
minds  and  hearts  of  four  million  black  folk — kin- 
dred, all  of  them,  of  that  young  slave  girl  whom 
he  had  seen  on  the  auction-block  in  New  Orleans! 
The  colored  race  found  a  great  ally  when  the  heart 
of  the  young  lawyer  was  stirred  by  the  new  and 
mighty  impulse  which  came  to  him  in  that  Crescent 
City  of  the  South. 

And,  in  similar  fashion,  the  Lord  conserved  the 
generous  impulse  of  this  young  Hebrew,  who,  in  a 
burst  of  moral  indignation,  had  killed  the  Egyptian 
taskmaster.  One  day,  as  Moses  led  his  flock  along 
the  slopes  of  Horeb,  he  saw  a  bush  burn  with  a 
mysterious  fire.  In  those  eager,  darting  flames,  ever 
a  symbol  of  the  Divine  in  the  minds  of  the  Semites, 
he  saw  the  presence  of  the  God  he  trusted.  He 
heard  a  divine  voice  issuing  out  of  the  bush.  This 
voice  spoke  to  him  not  regarding  his  own  personal 
peace  and  well-being,  it  spoke  to  him  of  the  intol- 
erable conditions  under  which  many  of  his  fellow- 
men  were  living,  and  of  his  responsibility  in  the 
matter.  "  I  am  the  God  thy  father,  the  God  of  Abra- 
ham, and  of  Isaac,  and  of  Jacob,"  it  said.  "  I  have 
surely  seen  the  affliction  of  my  people  which  are  in 


CALL  OF  AN   INDUSTRIAL   DELIVERER       115 

Egypt  and  have  heard  their  cry  by  reason  of  their 
taskmasters.  I  know  their  sorrows,  and  I  am  come 
down  to  deliver  them."  When  Moses  turned  aside 
to  see,  the  narrator  says,  "  God  called  unto  him  out 
of  the  midst  of  the  bush."  When  he  became  thought- 
ful and  observant  of  such  phenomena  as  were  open 
to  him,  even  there  in  the  quiet  pasture  at  the  foot 
of  Mount  Horeb,  when  he  faced  the  divine  approach 
with  interest  and  sympathy,  God  spoke  to  him,  and 
the  divine  message  proved  to  be  a  direct  call  to  social 
service. 

It  is  exceedingly  significant  that  this  Moses,  the 
great  historic  figure  in  the  background  of  the  whole 
Jewish  and  Christian  movement,  the  one  man  to 
whom  the  beginnings  of  a  definite  moral  law  in  the 
Bible  are  referred,  was  called  into  the  service  of 
God  by  a  direct  appeal  to  his  social  sympathies.  He 
was  called  to  be  the  leader  in  an  economic  revolu- 
tion, called  to  lay  the  foundations  of  a  common- 
wealth of  free  and  prosperous  industry.  '  I  have 
seen  the  affliction  of  my  people  Israel :  I  have  heard 
their  cry  by  reason  of  their  taskmasters:  and  I  am 
come  down  to  deliver  them;  come  now,  I  will  send 
thee  unto  Pharaoh,  that  thou  mayest  bring  them 
out ' — these  were  the  terms  of  the  call.  And  in  all 
the  subsequent  speeches  and  writings  of  Moses  we 
find  no  word  of  concern  touching  his  personal  salva- 


116    SOCIAL  MESSAGE  OF  THE  MODERN  PULPIT 

tion,  no  word  regarding  his  own  future  destiny  or 
blessed  immortality — he  was  called  to  lose  his  life 
in  social  service,  in  order  that  he  might  thus  find  it 
through  the  investment  of  it  in  the  industrial  deliv- 
erance of  his  own  class. 

God  turns  the  scale  habitually  by  the  weight  of 
a  man.  When  the  tale  of  bricks  is  doubled,  then 
Moses  comes;  and  all  subsequent  history  is  altered 
by  the  strength  and  wisdom  of  his  splendid  leader- 
ship. It  is  at  this  very  point  that  we  seem  to  find 
the  sorest  need  in  the  modern  movement  toward 
industrial  betterment — there  is  a  grievous  lack  of 
worthy  leaders.  A  labor-union  man  in  the  city  of 
Baltimore  has  recently  voiced  the  consciousness  of 
this  need  in  the  public  prints.  "  A  few  years  ago 
I  was  active  in  the  Federation  of  Labor,  but  now, 
though  I  am  still  a  delegate,  I  cannot  work  in  the 
organization  with  any  enthusiasm.  It  seems  as  if 
working-men  are  bound  to  injure  themselves  by  their 
own  actions.  They  are  blindly  selfish;  they  are 
bitter  and  short-sighted  in  their  organized  procedure. 
They  have  no  proper,  suitable,  and  intelligent  lead- 
ers. This  is  due  to  the  conditions  under  which  they 
work.  They  have  no  chance  to  educate  themselves, 
or  to  train  leaders  from  their  own  ranks.  What  can 
you  expect  in  the  way  of  economic  discernment  from 
an  intelligence  which  for  ten  hours  a  day  for  six 


CALL  OF  AN   INDUSTRIAL   DELIVERER       117 

days  in  the  week  has  been  employed  in  making  heads 
for  pins,  or  upon  any  other  single  detail  in  the  mod- 
ern factory  system? " 

We  can  sympathize  with  this  confession  of  a 
working-man.  His  statement  that  the  working-men 
have  "  no  proper,  suitable,  and  intelligent  leaders  " 
seems  exaggerated,  but  there  is  no  sufficient  number 
of  such  leaders  for  the  heavy  task  imposed  upon 
the  toilers.  We  have  all  seen  just  causes  go  down 
in  defeat  for  lack  of  competent  leadership.  There 
are  facts  enough  in  the  minds  of  men,  feeling  enough 
in  the  hearts  of  men,  organization  enough,  class 
loyalty  enough,  honest  determination  enough,  but 
there  is,  indeed,  a  sore  lack  of  competent,  far-seeing, 
trustworthy  leadership.  The  hands  on  the  clock  of 
industrial  betterment  are  repeatedly  put  back,  not 
hours,  but  days  and  years,  by  incompetent  leaders, 
who  can  feel  but  not  see.  Unwise,  unjust,  violent 
blows  are  struck — with  honest  purpose,  it  may  be, 
but  sure  to  react  to  the  hurt  of  the  men  who  struck 
them.  The  sympathetic  motive  must  therefore  be 
reenforced  and  directed  by  those  vast  additions  of 
knowledge  and  experience  which  come  through  care- 
ful study.  Leadership  with  eyes  to  see  and  with 
ears  to  hear,  with  a  mind  to  understand  and  with 
real  ability  to  point  the  way  of  progress,  is  the  in- 
sistent demand  of  the  hour. 


118     SOCIAL  MESSAGE   OF  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

The  notion  that  any  well-meaning  individual  who 
can  talk  loud  and  write  with  red  ink  ought  to  be 
allowed  to  undertake  to  upset  the  existing  institu- 
tions of  society  in  order  to  introduce  some  scheme 
of  his  own,  does  not  command  any  serious  or  useful 
following  these  days.  "We  have  been  favored  in  the 
past  with  brilliant  novels,  with  stirring  orations,  and 
with  startling  sermons  dealing  with  social  problems, 
which  have  done  much  more  harm  than  good.  And 
because  of  the  bad  effects  of  all  such,  the  world 
stands  ready  to  apply  to  those  men  who,  without 
careful  study  of  this  difficult  subject,  "  undertake 
to  doctor  society  on  the  strength  of  their  own  happy 
intuitions  and  their  own  love  of  hearing  themselves 
explode,"  the  same  epithet  which  it  applies  to  those 
persons  who  attempt  to  practise  medicine  according 
to  that  same  easy  method. 

The  leadership  which  will  bring  deliverance  will 
never  be  that  narrow,  one-eyed  sort  which  can  see 
only  the  evil  there  is  in  the  present  organization  of 
society,  with  no  appreciation  for  the  good  ends  al- 
ready attained,  and  with  no  true  comprehension  of 
the  essential  method  of  evolution  according  to  which 
the  universal  forces  at  work  in  the  world  about  us 
habitually  conserve,  as  far  as  may  be,  existing  forms 
of  life  and  prevalent  conditions,  utilizing  them  as 
available  material  to  be  wrought  upon  for  further 


CALL  OF  AN   INDUSTRIAL  DELIVERER       119 

advance.  If  a  man  sets  out  in  the  spirit  of  that  classi- 
cal pessimist  who  said,  "  There  is  a  tide  in  the  affairs 
of  men  which,  taken  anyway  you  please,  is  bad,"  he 
may  at  this  very  hour  bring  himself  to  the  point 
where  he  will  feel  that  instant  and  violent  revolution, 
is  not  only  justifiable,  but  inevitable.  History,  how- 
ever, is  not  commonly  made  while  such  men  wait, 
or  in  deference  to  their  unbalanced  suggestions. 
To  stir  up  envy  wantonly,  to  arouse  ill-founded 
prejudice,  to  make  telling  but  unfair  appeals  to  ig- 
norance, to  exaggerate  unhappy  conditions,  and  reck- 
lessly to  charge  others  with  maliciousness  and 
crime,  is  not  the  straightest  road  to  social  better- 
ment— it  is  no  road  at  all.  We  need  reforms,  many 
and  radical,  in  my  judgment,  but  they  will  come 
very  slightly,  if  at  all,  through  intemperate  and  bit- 
ter denunciation  unaccompanied  by  any  wise  sug- 
gestions for  relief;  they  will  come  rather  by  the 
patient  application  of  intelligence,  conscience,  and 
experience  to  problems  too  vast  and  too  vital  to  be 
solved  rapidly  or  off-hand. 

If  we  are  ever  to  bring  together  the  opposing 
parties  in  this  contest  for  material  gain,  it  must  be 
on  some  higher  ground  than  that  of  self-interest. 
The  only  way  that  these  large  issues  can  be  fully 
understood  and  set  in  the  way  of  a  more  satisfactory 
adjustment  is,  I  believe,  in  the  light  of  Christian 


120     SOCIAL  MESSAGE   OF  THE  MODERN  PULPIT 

faith.  The  narrow.,  selfish  passions  of  men  must 
be  gradually  subordinated  to  those  larger  principles 
of  social  well-being  which  look  toward  the  day  when, 
by  the  introduction  of  a  greatly  enlarged  conscious- 
ness, society  shall  feel  all  its  members — the  feet  as 
well  as  the  hands,  and  the  hands  as  well  as  the  head 
and  the  heart ;  the  humble  toilers  who  live  by  manual 
labor  no  less  than  the  brainy  captains  of  industry 
or  the  prophets  of  the  spiritual  life.  This  enlarged 
social  consciousness  must  become  so  real  that  when 
the  feet  and  hands  of  society  are  cold  and  unclad, 
when  they  are  dirty  or  diseased,  the  whole  body  will 
be  uncomfortable  until  that  condition  is  changed. 
It  is  only  a  narrow  individualism  which  allows  such 
conditions  to  endure  to-day.  And  because  this  task 
is  large  and  difficult  the  leadership  must  be  corre- 
spondingly competent. 

It  is  the  high  office  of  the  Christian  pulpit  to  lead 
the  way  in  the  inculcation  of  these  truer  principles 
of  social  action.  If  the  ministers  of  Jesus  Christ 
should  ever  suffer  themselves  to  become  merely  the 
liveried  servants  of  a  conventional  ecclesiasticism; 
if  they  should  easily  content  themselves  with  grind- 
ing out  regularly  such  a  weekly  grist  of  services  and 
sermons  as  would  hold  together  a  congregation  suf- 
ficiently responsive  in  attention  and  pew-rents  to 
afford  them  a  basis  of  existence;  if  they  should  ac- 


CALL  OF  AN   INDUSTRIAL  DELIVERER       121 

cept  existing  institutions  and  practices  as  they  find 
them,  skilfully  adjusting  themselves  to  those  condi- 
tions for  the  less  heroic  task  of  cultivating  here  and 
there  a  modest  plant  of  private  piety — they  would 
then  have  already  abdicated  from  the  high  position 
to  which  Jesus  originally  appointed  His  ministers. 
He  sent  them  out  with  the  words,  "  Ye  shall  sit  upon 
twelve  thrones,  judging  the  tribes  of  Israel."  In 
the  work  of  shaming  low  ideals,  in  rebuking  courses 
of  action  clearly  immoral,  in  leading  the  forces  of 
righteousness  in  their  advance  against  the  evils  of 
society,  and  in  extending  the  sceptre  of  sympathy, 
of  cheer,  and  of  courage  to  all  those  deeper  aspira- 
tions which  look  toward  the  coming  of  a  kingdom 
truly  divine,  these  appointed  ministers  of  Jesus 
Christ  were  to  do  a  work  nothing  less  than  regal! 
"  Ye  shall  sit  upon  thrones,"  He  said  to  them  as 
they  went  forth  commissioned  to  serve  under  His 
own  royal  banner.  And  the  modern  pulpit  will  fall 
short  of  its  legitimate  function  in  the  life  of  the 
world  if  it  fails  to  measure  up  to  this  high  privilege 
in  contributing  genuine  moral  leadership  to  the  work 
of  social  reconstruction. 

In  addition  to  furnishing  his  own  quota  of  help- 
ful leadership  in  the  solution  of  social  problems,  the 
minister  of  to-day  may  lend  his  aid  to  the  develop- 
ment of  a  better  type  of  leader  among  those  who 


122     SOCIAL  MESSAGE   OF  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

struggle  for  their  own  industrial  betterment.  There 
are  several  significant  facts  to  be  noted  as  to  the 
divinely  appointed  leadership  in  this  ancient  labor 
movement  which  we  are  studying.  Moses  the  deliv- 
erer belonged  originally  to  the  class  he  was  to  lead. 
He  was  the  son  of  a  man  who  worked  yonder  in  the 
slave  gang;  he  had  been  nursed  at  the  breast  of  a 
slave  mother.  All  the  advantages  secured  through 
his  adoption  by  Pharaoh's  daughter  never  changed 
this  fundamental  fact  nor  altered  his  ultimate  loy- 
alty. When  he  was  come  to  years  he  refused  to  be 
called  the  son  of  Pharaoh's  daughter,  choosing  rather 
to  suffer  affliction  with  his  own  people  than  to  enjoy 
the  pleasures  of  an  iniquitous  system  for  a  season. 
He  might  at  one  point  in  his  career  have  broken 
away  from  his  humble  ancestry  and  have  belonged 
permanently  to  the  more  fortunate  class,  but  in  the 
spirit  of  unhesitating  loyalty  he  held  fast  to  his  own 
people,  and  became  in  time  their  effective  leader. 

In  similar  fashion,  the  real  captains  and  lieuten- 
ants in  the  struggle  for  modern  industrial  freedom 
must  of  necessity  come  up  from  the  ranks.  In  the 
discussion  of  many  of  the  painful  problems  now  be- 
fore us,  the  men  who  do  the  rough  work  of  the 
world,  and  who  receive  an  all  too  inadequate  re- 
ward, have  the  first  right  to  the  floor;  and  it  is  in 
the  order  of  progress  that  they  should  insist  on  being 


CALL  OF  AN   INDUSTRIAL   DELIVERER       123 

heard.  The  world  wonders  sometimes  why  wise  pro- 
fessors of  economics  from  the  university,  or  canny 
millionaires,  should  not  be  permitted  to  tell  these 
wage-earners  what  to  do  and  how  to  do  it,  thus 
saving  them  from  the  awkward  blunders  they  make 
in  learning  the  way.  But  the  plain  people  will  not 
and  ought  not  to  follow  those  leaders  blindly.  It  is 
in  the  line  of  historic  development  that  their  true 
leaders  shall  be  bone  of  their  bone  and  flesh  of  their 
flesh.  The  very  fitness  for  a  larger  measure  of  free- 
dom, with  all  the  added  responsibilities  it  will  natu- 
rally bring,  must  come  through  the  hard  process  of 
gaining  that  knowledge  for  themselves. 

We  shall  see  great  progress  along  this  line,  in  my 
judgment,  in  the  next  twenty-five  years.  The  em- 
ploying class  is  not  drawing  off  the  stronger,  brainier, 
more  aspiring  wage-earners  to-day  as  it  did  a  genera- 
tion ago.  At  that  period  unoccupied  land  was  abun- 
dant, and  the  more  resolute  spirits  were  drawn  out 
and  away  from  the  crowded  centres.  The  amount  of 
capital  needed  to  go  into  business  for  one's  self  was 
much  smaller  than  it  is  to-day,  with  the  huge  depart- 
ment-store, the  corporation,  and  the  trust,  and  there- 
fore the  ambition  to  own  his  own  business  was  a 
real  incentive  to  effort,  carrying  many  a  wage-earner 
up  into  the  employing  class.  But  to-day,  with  the 
great  aggregations  of  capital  and  industry,  such 


124    SOCIAL  MESSAGE  OF  THE  MODERN  PULPIT 

signal  success  is  for  the  many  simply  out  of  the 
question,  and  it  therefore  ceases  to  be  any  real  in- 
centive. The  amount  of  economic  elasticity  in  our 
present  system  is  much  less  than  it  was  fifty  years 
ago.  The  stronger,  abler,  and  more  resolute  wage- 
earners  will  almost  of  necessity  remain  in  their  own 
class,  and  some  of  them  are  destined  to  become 
Moses-like  leaders  in  the  struggle  for  social  better- 
ment. The  result  will  be  that  the  wage-earning  class 
will  not  be  left  unorganized  and  leaderless  to  the 
extent  that  it  has  been  in  past  years. 

We  notice  further  that  Moses  was  not  a  raw  en- 
thusiast, devoid  of  insight  and  experience,  but  a  man 
trained  and  educated.  He  was  "  learned  in  all  the 
learning  of  the  Egyptians,"  we  are  told,  thus  sharing 
actively  in  the  benefits  of  one  of  the  highest  civiliza- 
tions of  that  period.  He  had  also  been  for  many 
years  a  shepherd  in  the  land  of  Midian,  becoming 
thoroughly  familiar  with  all  the  ins  and  outs  of  the 
very  region  through  which,  in  future  years,  he  was 
to  lead  the  escaping  Israelites.  He  brought  to  his 
task,  therefore,  the  ripened  experience  of  a  trained 
and  mature  man. 

It  is  interesting,  and,  I  believe,  significant  also, 
to  notice  that  he  was  not  a  ready  talker.  When 
first  called  to  be  the  leader  of  a  labor  movement, 
and  of  what  proved  to  be  an  august  moral  enter- 


CALL  OF  AN   INDUSTRIAL   DELIVERER       123 

prise  as  well,  he  begged  to  be  excused  on  the  ground 
that  he  was  not  eloquent  in  speech.  "  I  am  slow  of 
speech,"  he  said,  "  and  of  a  slow  tongue."  He  urged 
this  point  because  he  felt  that  this  would  entirely 
disqualify  him  for  the  service  indicated.  It  would 
almost  seem  as  if  the  divine  Author  of  this  ancient 
social  effort,  in  making  choice  of  a  suitable  leader, 
foresaw  the  fact  that  in  the  labor  movements  of  the 
future  the  glib  talkers  would  frequently  come  un- 
duly to  the  front,  to  the  serious  detriment  of  the 
movements  they  espoused.  The  agitators,  the  talk- 
ers, the  orators,  the  spell-binders  have  again  and 
again  wielded  a  mighty  influence  which  has  not  al- 
ways been  for  the  well-being  of  their  admiring  and 
awe-struck  hearers.  This  Moses,  then,  slow  of 
speech  and  slow  of  tongue,  who  was  to  move  men 
not  so  much  by  burning  orations  or  fiery  appeals  as 
by  patient,  useful,  constructive  effort,  was  called  to 
be  the  central  figure  in  the  deliverance  of  a  people. 
It  is  significant,  also,  that  the  symbol  of  power 
which  he  should  bear  with  him  was  his  own  rod  or 
shepherd's  crook  which  he  had  borne  in  the  days 
of  useful  manual  labor  in  the  land  of  Midian.  He 
went  back  to  Egypt,  to  hold  aloft,  in  the  presence 
of  the  people  and  as  a  warning  to  Pharaoh  the  op- 
pressor, not  the  sword  of  violence,  not  the  priestly 
censer  burning  with  incense,  but  the  plain  rod  he 


126     SOCIAL  MESSAGE   OF  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

had  used  in  keeping  sheep.  The  tool  of  industry, 
when  duly  consecrated,  became  the  symbol  of  a 
divine  deliverance.  It  is  likewise  the  belief  of  many 
sane  people  to-day  that  our  own  industrial  deliver- 
ance is  to  come,  not  by  the  torch  and  musket  of 
any  bloody  revolution,  not  by  any  mysterious  cen- 
ser which  will  work  magical  changes  in  the  structure 
of  society,  but  rather  by  the  use  of  the  common 
tools  of  the  workaday  world,  as  we  find  it  now, 
through  the  gradual  introduction  of  better  methods 
and  a  nobler  spirit. 

The  great  need  still  is  for  men  constituted  as 
Moses  was — for  leaders  who  know  something  of 
history,  because  certain  industrial  experiments  have 
been  sufficiently  tried,  and  there  is  no  need  that 
every  generation  should  try  them  over  again;  for 
leaders  who  know  something  of  economics,  because 
the  rewards  of  industry  cannot  be  distributed  straight 
along  on  the  basis  of  feeling  and  sentiment  in  defi- 
ance of  social  justice  and  economic  law;  for  leaders 
who  know  something  of  morals,  because  the  sources 
of  motive  and  stimulus,  the  incitements  to  activity 
and  honesty,  to  prudence  and  thrift,  cannot  be  over- 
looked by  any  one  who  is  planning  the  betterment 
of  a  people — in  a  word,  for  leaders  who  are  ac- 
quainted with  all  the  facts  and  forces  which  bear 
upon  the  entire  situation.  The  call  is  loud  for 


CALL  OF  AN   INDUSTRIAL  DELIVERER       127 

trained  and  skilful  leaders,  competent  enough  to 
grasp  the  problem  and  to  correctly  point  the  way. 

It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  this  demand  for 
leaders  brought  up  from  the  ranks  can  in  time  be 
adequately  met.  The  public-school  system  is  pro- 
ducing a  higher  average  of  intelligence.  The  State 
universities,  exacting  from  their  students  no  tuition 
fees,  or  only  nominal  ones,  are  making  possible  the 
higher  education  and  the  technical  training  of  many 
who  were  formerly  denied  these  privileges.  The 
public  libraries,  which  are  dotting  the  country  every- 
where, have  doors  swinging  easily  at  the  touch  of 
aspiration,  admitting  the  mind  of  any  toiler,  who  has 
the  strength  and  time  to  make  the  effort,  to  com- 
panionship with  the  greatest  minds  of  the  ages.  The 
moral  obligation  of  taking  thought  for  one's  class, 
and  for  those  interests  which  are  vaster  every  way 
than  the  acquiring  of  an  individual  competence,  is 
being  increasingly  recognized  by  the  rank  and  file, 
and  it  is  only  a  question  of  years  until  up  out  of 
the  ranks  there  will  come  a  much  larger  number  of 
men  of  force  and  insight  to  furnish  the  necessary 
leadership  so  sorely  demanded  at  this  hour. 

It  is  significant  also  that  this  ancient  leader  under- 
took his  work,  not  in  anger  and  hatred,  but  in  the 
spirit  of  moral  faith.  Early  in  life  the  soul  of  Moses 
was  stirred  to  its  depths  when  he  saw  that  Egyptian 


128     SOCIAL  MESSAGE   OF  THE  MODERN  PULPIT 

taskmaster  beating  the  helpless  slave.  His  blood  was 
up  in  a  moment,  and  in  his  fierce  wrath  he  sprang 
upon  the  oppressor  and  killed  him.  But,  although 
his  cause  was  just,  it  is  not  in  this  mood  that  the 
real  work  of  social  deliverance  can  be  wrought. 
God  called  him  away  at  once  into  the  wilderness, 
and  there,  through  days  and  years  of  quiet  medita- 
tion, of  devotion  and  of  useful  labor,  his  nature 
ripened  and  matured  until  he  had  within  him  the 
true  qualities  of  a  deliverer.  Now  when  he  returned 
to  Egypt,  it  was  the  coming  of  one  who  had  put  the 
shoes  off  his  feet,  because  the  place  where  he  formed 
the  high  resolve  to  aid  his  people  was  holy  ground. 
It  was  the  coming  of  one  who  had  seen  the  mysteri- 
ous fire,  which  burns  but  does  not  consume,  which 
removes  the  dross  and  leaves  society  fine  and  pure. 
It  was  the  coming  of  one  who  had  heard  a  voice 
from  heaven  saying,  '  I  am  the  God  of  Abraham, 
of  Isaac,  and  of  Jacob.  I  have  seen  the  affliction 
of  my  people  and  have  heard  their  cry  by  reason 
of  their  taskmasters,  and  I  am  come  down  to  deliver 
them.  Come,  now,  I  will  send  thee,  that  thou  mayest 
bring  them  out/  Moses  came  back,  therefore,  com- 
miflfiioned  from  on  high,  his  face  shining  as  the  face 
of  one  who  had  seen  God,  for  he  had  caught  a  vision 
of  the  divine  sympathy  for  the  struggling  millions. 
He  came  back  strong  and  serene  in  the  conscious- 


CALL  OF  AN   INDUSTRIAL   DELIVERER       129 

ness  of  a  high  moral  purpose,  of  a  mission  to  aid 
in  working  out  a  divine  ideal  to  which  the  power 
of  heaven  was  openly  pledged.  "  By  faith  he  for- 
sook Egypt,  not  fearing  the  wrath  of  the  king,  for 
he  endured  as  seeing  him  who  is  invisible."  It  is 
in  that  nobler  mood,  and  under  the  impulse  of  such 
moral  faith,  that  the  true  work  of  social  deliverance 
is  to  be  undertaken. 

The  struggling  people  to-day  will  certainly  be  mis- 
led if  they  think  that  any  permanent  deliverance  is 
to  come  through  red-mouthed  agitators  who,  casting 
aside  the  moral  and  spiritual,  insist  on  making  it 
merely  a  brute  struggle  for  material  advantage. 
They  will  be  altogether  misled  if  they  think  that 
breaking  the  wrists  of  men  who  refuse  to  belong 
to  their  industrial  sect,  or  dynamiting  the  homes  of 
men  who  insist  upon  the  right  to  work,  or  destroy- 
ing the  property  of  those  who  will  not  be  converted 
to  their  particular  Gospel  of  Labor,  will  in  any  wise 
advance  their  interests.  All  this  moral  defiance  and 
contempt  for  the  spiritual,  all  this  exaltation  of 
anger  and  desperate  reliance  upon  the  fierce  thrust 
of  self-interest  will  surely  fail,  and  it  ought  to  fail. 
Before  these  blind  impulses  toward  industrial  relief 
can  ever  succeed,  they,  too,  will  have  to  go  off  into 
the  wilderness  of  Midian,  and  keep  sheep  for  forty 
years,  until  they  learn  the  mood  and  temper  in  which 


130     SOCIAL  MESSAGE   OF  THE   MODERN  PULPIT 

social  progress  is  made.  They,  too,  must  learn  to 
put  off  their  shoes  as  on  holy  ground,  to  face  the 
bush  that  burns  with  fire  in  silent  awe,  and  to 
hear  the  voice  of  Him  who  alone  has  the  power 
and  the  wisdom  to  bring  His  twentieth-century 
people  up  out  of  the  conditions  where  the  lives  of 
many  are  still  made  bitter  and  unfruitful  by  hard 
bondage. 

Wide  observation  of  the  present  industrial  agita- 
tion and  a  careful  perusal  of  a  considerable  amount 
of  the  literature  of  the  labor  movement  have  served 
to  convince  me  that  the  tendency  to-day  is  to  expect 
altogether  too  much  from  the  blind  push  of  self- 
interest,  and  to  lay  altogether  too  little  emphasis 
upon  the  results  to  be  gained  from  the  patient  culti- 
vation of  that  mutual  regard  which  is  deep-seated 
in  all  normally  constituted  men.  It  was  the  religious 
character  of  the  Hebrew  movement  for  industrial 
deliverance  which  uncovered  deep  wells  of  motive 
power  for  the  furtherance  of  the  work  undertaken. 
The  leaders  of  the  enterprise  were  thus  enabled,  by 
the  form  which  this  ancient  social  effort  took,  to 
appeal  successfully  to  those  sentiments  and  aspira- 
tions which  in  all  ages  have  shown  themselves  most 
effective  in  shaping  history. 

In  the  year  1855,  six  years  before  our  Civil  War, 
a  hard-headed,  practical  man,  whose  name  was  David 


CALL  OF  AN   INDUSTRIAL   DELIVERER       131 

Christy,  wrote  a  book  entitled  "  Cotton  is  King." 
He  had  no  use  for  any  foolish  sentiment,  he  said. 
He  took  the  hard  facts  of  life  as  he  found  them, 
and  he  went  on  to  show  that  the  interests  of  the 
Southern  cotton-growers  demanded  slavery  if  they 
were  to  prosper;  and  further,  that  the  interests  of 
the  Northern  manufacturers  of  cotton  in  the  mills 
of  Massachusetts  and  New  York  also  demanded 
cheap  cotton,  which  could  best  be  produced  by  slave- 
labor  in  the  South;  and  further,  that  the  whole 
American  people,  wearing  cotton  clothing,  most  of 
them,  every  day  in  the  year,  demanded  this  same 
system  of  production;  and  that  therefore  the  whole 
agitation  about  the  abolition  of  slavery  was  but  the 
troubled  dream  of  a  few  silly  enthusiasts.  "  Cotton 
is  king,"  he  said,  "  and  it  will  finally  determine  the 
issue!  " 

But  hard-headed,  practical  man  though  he  was,  he 
was  utterly  and  eternally  mistaken.  Cotton  was  not 
king — love  was  king!  Love  of  country  and  love  of 
freedom,  love  of  humanity  and  love  of  God — love 
was  king  even  in  that  hour  when  David  Christy  was 
writing  out  his  high  claims  about  the  kingship  of 
cotton.  And,  indeed,  before  the  ink  was  fairly  dry 
upon  the  pages  of  his  book,  amid  the  rattle  of  mus- 
ketry and  the  roar  of  cannon,  in  the  quiet  tones  of 
Lincoln's  Inaugural  Address  and  in  the  prayers  of 


132     SOCIAL  MESSAGE   OF  THE  MODERN  PULPIT 

millions  of  people,  the  fundamental  lordship  of  love 
was  being  effectively  asserted.  Men  and  women  did 
great  deeds  in  those  days;  they  made  great  sacrifices; 
they  carried  through  great  enterprises,  not  because 
they  were  being  paid  for  it  in  cotton — they  were  not 
paid  for  it  at  all.  They  did  it  because  they  loved 
— they  loved  their  country,  they  loved  liberty, 
they  loved  humanity,  and  they  loved  God  more 
than  any  material  advantage  whatsoever.  Love  is 
king! 

In  our  own  day,  we,  also,  have  a  saying  on  the 
street  like  unto  that  of  David  Christy's — it  is  to 
the  effect  that  "  Money  talks."  It  means  that  money 
can  say  more,  and  can  say  it  more  effectively,  in 
inspiring  men  to  action,  than  any  other  voice.  And 
this  saying,  likewise,  sounds  an  utterly  false  note. 
Men  will  do  and  endure  much  for  material  gain, 
and  they  are  doing  it  constantly.  But  when  money 
comes  out  into  the  open  and  talks  in  the  loudest 
tones  it  can  command,  its  voice  is  altogether  feeble 
as  compared  with  the  voice  of  love.  The  great  deeds 
are  still  done,  the  great  sacrifices  are  still  made,  the 
great  burdens  are  still  unflinchingly  borne  for  love 
and  not  for  gold. 

All  the  year  through,  in  peaceful  walks  of  life 
no  less  than  in  war,  the  latent  heroism  in  human 
nature  is  called  out  by  love.  Some  months  ago  there 


CALL  OF   AN   INDUSTRIAL   DELIVERER       133 

was  a  wreck  on  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  Railroad. 
Engineer  Helgath  was  scalded  to  death,  but  in  those 
last  moments,  while  he  was  dying,  he  called  to  a 
passing  brakeman,  "  Get  a  red  lamp,  somewhere,  and 
go  back  and  flag  '  Forty-nine  '  or  she  will  be  on  top 
of  us."  He  was  not  displaying  this  thoughtful  hero- 
ism in  the  fearful  agony  of  his  dying  condition  for 
pay,  but  for  love  of  his  fellow-sufferers  in  the  wreck. 
And  in  that  same  wreck,  Nichols,  the  dining-car 
conductor,  with  both  legs  broken  as  well  as  several 
ribs,  dragged  himself  along  with  his  hands  until, 
with  a  portion  of  his  coat  which  he  had  torn  off, 
he  could  plug  the  escape  valve  of  the  wrecked  en- 
gine to  prevent  the  escaping  steam  from  scalding 
some  imprisoned  people.  Love  talks!  Love  says 
more,  and  says  it  more  effectively,  in  all  the  great 
experiences  of  human  life,  than  any  other  element 
we  know.  Love  is  king,  and  when  we  begin  to  show 
this  supreme  quality,  we  have  openly  allied  ourselves 
with  the  strongest  force  on  earth  or  in  the  sky  for 
the  winning  of  the  victories  that  lie  between  us  and 
our  land  of  promise.  It  was  love,  in  the  highest 
manifestation  of  itself  recorded  anywhere  in  human 
history,  which  spoke  out  at  the  climax  of  its  career 
and  said  in  substance,  "  All  power  in  heaven  and 
on  earth  is,  in  the  last  anlysis,  given  unto  me.  Go 
ye  therefore  into  all  the  world  and  conquer  the  na- 


134     SOCIAL  MESSAGE   OF  THE  MODERN  PULPIT 

tions  by  the  power  of  this  ultimate  moral  fact."  Love 
is  king,  and  those  men  are  blind  who  would  minimize 
its  commanding  influence. 

There  is  to  be  a  new  crusade  undertaken  for  the 
recovery  of  wide  areas  of  Holy  Land  which  Christ 
has  made  forever  sacred  by  His  loving  interest. 
These  holy  fields  are  not  away  yonder  where  the 
Syrian  stars  look  down — they  are  underneath  our 
feet  in  those  quarters  where  stand  the  mill,  the  fac- 
tory, and  the  tenement-house.  They  are  to  be  re- 
covered from  the  hands  of  those  Saracens  who  have 
seized  them  in  selfishness,  and  who  show  more  regard 
for  brute  force  and  for  money  power  than  for  these 
moral  principles  and  spiritual  values.  They  are  to 
be  captured  from  those  infidels  who,  by  careless  in- 
difference to  the  well-being  of  others,  as  well  as  by 
the  open  rejection  of  Christ's  commands,  are  tram- 
pling upon  His  cross.  They  are  to  be  retaken  from 
those  who,  by  their  defiance  of  Christian  ideals, 
which  are  the  traditional  and  legitimate  ideals  of 
American  life,  are  become  the  enemies  of  our  peace. 
Here  in  all  our  large  cities  and  towns,  some  of  these 
Saracens  are  encamped;  it  is  imperative  that  a  twen- 
tieth-century crusade  should  go  boldly  out  against 
them,  and  it  is  for  the  Christian  pulpit  to  furnish 
its  full  quota  of  competent  leadership  for  this  im- 
pending conflict. 


CALL  OF  AS    INDUSTRIAL   DELIVERER       135 

The  methods  of  Christian  warfare,  however,  have 
radically  changed  since  the  twelfth  century.  The 
weapons  of  our  warfare  are  not  now  carnal — they 
are  intellectual  and  spiritual.  These  can  be  made 
mighty  here  in  the  land  of  the  public  school,  the 
open  ballot-box,  and  the  free  church,  to  the  pulling 
down  of  strongholds.  If  these  weapons,  which  are 
within  the  reach  of  all,  can  be  wisely  and  justly  used, 
they  will  prove  sufficient  for  the  recovery  of  our 
land  to  worthier  occupancy.  The  land  of  Washing- 
ton and  of  Lincoln,  this  "  land  of  the  pilgrims'  pride, 
for  which  our  fathers  died,"  is  altogether  too  holy 
to  be  permanently  disgraced  by  organized  and  irre- 
sponsible selfishness.  The  forces  which  are  to  trans- 
form this  narrow  individualism,  of  which  we  have 
so  much,  into  a  habit  of  mind  which  looks  sanely 
and  sympathetically  upon  the  things  of  others  as 
well  as  upon  its  own,  are  not  the  bludgeon  and  the 
brickbat,  not  the  pistol  nor  the  bomb;  they  are  the 
forces  of  instruction  and  persuasion — the  forces 
which  enlarge  the  mind,  sanctify  the  heart  and 
strengthen  the  will  for  the  high  and  hard  tasks  im- 
posed upon  all  men  of  intelligent  good-will  by  pres- 
ent conditions. 

I  do  not  believe  there  is  anything  of  overstate- 
ment in  saying  that  the  necessity  now  upon  us  as  a 
people  calls  for  just  such  a  crusade  in  the  interests 


136     SOCIAL   MESSAGE   OF  THE  MODERN   PULPIT 

of  a  higher  righteousness.  Are  we  not  confronted 
by  dangers  which  threaten  the  two  most  essential 
elements  in  the  life  of  our  Republic — equality  be- 
fore the  law  and  freedom  of  opportunity  for  all 
men?  Take  the  political  party  which  is  in  power 
now,  which  has  been  in  power  for  ten  years,  and 
which  seems  likely  to  remain  in  power  for  some 
years  to  come — is  there  not  danger  that  it  should 
be  so  controlled  as  to  become  the  party  of  the  strong 
and  the  privileged  classes  as  against  the  helpless 
many?  Splendid  men  there  are  in  it — many  of  them 
— but  these  do  not  always  find  it  easy  to  secure  such 
action  as  will  guard  the  interests  of  the  common 
people  against  the  injustice  of  the  strong,  the  greedy, 
the  irresponsible  few. 

There  is  also  the  willingness  of  people — north, 
south,  east,  and  west — to  allow  what  are  supposed 
to  be  respectable  corporations  to  corrupt  city  coun- 
cils and  legislatures  and  courts,  for  their  own  profit. 
Great  public  or  semipublic  utilities  are  administered 
for  the  gain  of  the  few  and  to  the  sore  loss  of  the 
many.  Valuable  franchises  are  secured  for  a  song — 
if  the  song  is  only  sung  quietly,  and  to  the  muffled 
jingle  of  the  guinea — and  are  then  capitalized  and 
utilized  for  unjust  gain.  The  disposition  on  the  part 
of  many  strong  men  to  feel  that  they  are  above  the 
law,  and  their  readiness  to  employ  certain  skilful 


CALL  OF   AN   INDUSTRIAL   DELIVERER       137 

lawyers  to  see  to  it  that  those  feelings  are  realized, 
is  a  solemn  menace  to  the  perpetuity  of  our  free 
institutions.  This  whole  tendency  to  allow  the  help- 
less to  be  trodden  upon  and  the  fortunate  few  to 
march  over  them  into  a  showy  success  is  perilous  to 
the  Republic. 

Our  most  dangerous  enemies  to-day  are  not  the 
low-browed  criminals  who  occasionally  rob  the  till 
of  a  store  or  break  the  head  of  some  lonely  passer-by 
in  the  street.  These  are  only  the  mosquitoes  of  the 
jungle,  annoying,  destructive  in  some  measure  of  our 
comfort,  to  be  gotten  rid  of  as  fast  as  possible,  but 
not  deadly  to  the  life  of  the  nation.  There  are 
enemies  of  our  peace  who  are  as  dangerous  as  the 
tigers  in  the  jungle.  They  are  the  men  who,  by 
their  wicked  methods  in  commercial  transactions, 
lower  the  tone  of  our  national  life,  who  puzzle  and 
deaden  the  public  conscience,  who  weaken  the  rever- 
ence for  law  by  their  higher  lawlessness,  who  prosti- 
tute the  sacred  functions  of  government  for  their 
private  ends — these  are  the  tigers  of  the  jungle,  and 
they  are  dangerous.  We  have  not  yet  learned  how 
to  deal  with  them  as  we  have  with  the  common  ruf- 
fians who  threaten  the  well-being  of  society  with 
nothing  more  than  occasional  outbreaks  of  physical 
violence. 

In  grappling  with  these  grievous  problems,  forced 


138    SOCIAL  MESSAGE  OF  THE  MODERN  PULPIT 

upon  us  by  the  greed  and  the  graft,  by  the  fraud 
and  the  lust  of  modern  times,  there  is  a  stern  de- 
mand that  our  churches  should  be  producing  abun- 
dantly that  same  heroic  stuff  exhibited  by  our  fathers 
at  Valley  Forge  and  Yorktown,  at  Shiloh  and  Gettys- 
burg. Public  spirit,  uncalculating  patriotism,  readi- 
ness to  sacrifice  personal  convenience  to  the  demands 
of  a  higher  service — all  these  are  as  requisite  to-day 
as  they  have  ever  been  in  any  great  emergency  of 
our  national  life: 

"  Oh,  beautiful  my  country,  ours  once  more! 
What  were  our  lives  without  thee? 
What  all  our  lives  to  save  thee? 
We  reck  not  what  we  give  thee; 
We  will  not  dare  to  doubt  thee ; 
But  ask  whatever  else,  and  we  will  dare." 

The  religious  motive  for  this  new  crusade  against 
irresponsible  self-interest  will  be  found,  in  my  judg- 
ment, in  the  more  thorough  application  of  the  prin- 
ciples involved  in  the  truth  of  the  Incarnation.  The 
transfer  of  the  centre  of  theological  thought  from 
the  Atonement  to  the  Incarnation  has  been  frequently 
remarked  upon  in  the  more  thoughtful  reviews.  The 
reconciliation  of  the  individual  sinner  to  his  Maker 
and  the  salutary  provisions  for  his  well-being  in  a 
future  world,  considered  quite  apart  from  his  obliga- 


CALL  OF   AN   INDUSTRIAL   DELIVERER       139 

tions  to  those  industrial  and  political  relations  in 
which  he  stands,  does  not  now  hold  the  centre  of 
the  stage  as  it  once  did.  The  sacredness  of  human 
life  here  and  now,  as  viewed  in  the  light  of  the  In- 
carnation, makes  imperative  an  unceasing  effort  to 
provide  for  all  the  children  of  men  an  environment 
that  shall  facilitate  and  not  hinder  their  approach 
toward  that  high  norm  of  spiritual  excellence  re- 
vealed and  made  possible  for  humanity  through 
Jesus  of  Xazareth.  His  splendid  statement,  "  I  am 
the  vine,  ye  are  the  branches,"  opens  up  a  noble 
vista  of  unparalleled  opportunity  to  the  aspiring 
soul,  and  it  also  imposes  the  weightiest  obligation 
the  conscience  can  feel  touching  those  lives  which 
are,  by  their  unhappy  surroundings,  almost  inevi- 
tably thrust  away  from  any  real  fellowship  with  the 
spiritual  energy  there  named  for  the  redemption  of 
humanity.  The  sense  of  duty  which  springs  from 
our  recognition  of  the  fact  that  social  conditions  to 
a  great  degree  make  or  mar  men,  thus  showing 
themselves  potent  in  saving  or  in  destroying  spiritual 
life,  is  wonderfully  strengthened  when  it  is  viewed 
in  the  light  which  streams  from  this  great  truth  of 
the  Incarnation. 

Resuming  the  narrative  again,  you  will  notice 
the  form  of  sanction  to  be  placed  upon  this  second 
saner  and  truer  effort  of  Moses  for  the  deliverance 


140    SOCIAL  MESSAGE   OF  THE  MODERN   PULPIT 

of  the  oppressed  Israelites.  "  This  shall  be  a  sign 
that  I  have  sent  thee;  when  thou  hast  brought  my 
people  out,  they  shall  serve  me  upon  this  mountain." 
The  result  of  industrial  betterment  was  to  be  found 
not  so  much  in  the  increase  of  material  advantage 
as  in  their  service  of  God  through  a  higher,  holier 
life.  It  was  more,  much  more,  than  a  mere  question 
of  bread  and  butter — the  sign  of  victory  was  to  be 
seen  in  the  changed  characters  of  those  who  profited 
by  this  deliverance  undertaken  in  the  spirit  of  moral 
faith.  They  would  come  up  out  of  the  struggle 
to  "  serve  God "  as  they  had  never  served  Him 
before. 

This  is  the  Gospel  of  Labor  as  recorded  in  the  Old 
Testament,  and  that  which  stands  recorded  in  the 
New  Testament  is  like  unto  it.  "  Come  unto  me  all 
ye  that  labor  and  are  heavy  laden,"  said  the  Carpen- 
ter Prophet  who  came  out  of  Xazareth,  "  and  I  will 
give  you  rest."  He  nowhere  promised  the  rest  of 
fat  and  sleek  material  prosperity,  nor  the  rest  of 
well-fed  indifference  to  the  spiritual  values  of  life. 
He  offered  them  the  rest  of  a  higher  allegiance  and 
of  a  holier  form  of  service.  This  genuine  rest  was 
to  be  found  by  "  taking  His  yoke  "  upon  the  weary 
shoulders  and  by  "  learning  from  Him  "  that  way  of 
life  which  would  bring  peace  to  the  soul.  It  was 
with  the  same  high  purpose  that  this  ancient  labor 


CALL  OF   AN    INDUSTRIAL   DELIVERER       141 

leader  came  from  the  spot  that  was  holy  ground, 
from  the  bush  that  burned  with  a  mysterious  fire, 
and  from  his  conference  with  a  divine  presence,  to 
bring  the  people  out — it  was  all  done  that  they  might 
the  more  worthily  serve  God.  "  This  shall  be  the 
sign  that  I  have  sent  thee,  when  thou  hast  brought 
my  people  out,  they  shall  '  serve  me '  upon  this 
mountain." 

The  gigantic  difficulties  in  his  way  when  he  under- 
took the  deliverance  can  readily  be  pictured.  Here 
was  a  mass  of  uninstructed,  unorganized  slaves,  su- 
perstitious and  timid  regarding  any  effort  to  disturb 
the  existing  order.  The  feeling  that  it  was  better 
to  let  well  enough  alone  was  strong  upon  them,  as 
we  shall  see  later,  even  when  the  "  well  enough  " 
was  an  oriental  slavery.  The  venture  of  any  at- 
tempt at  change  frightened  them,  for  the  reason  that 
their  unaspiring  minds  were  sadly  deficient  in  that 
spiritual  imagination  which  can  picture  to  itself  bet- 
ter conditions  to  be  secured  by  obeying  the  up- 
thrust  of  wholesome  discontent,  which  is  commonly 
the  push  of  a  divine  purpose  resident  within.  The 
strength  of  Pharaoh  and  the  power  of  resistance  ap- 
parent in  the  system  of  oppression  then  in  vogue 
were  enough  to  dishearten  this  industrial  leader,  but 
added  to  all  that  was  the  apathy  and  irresponsiveness 
of  the  people  he  would  serve. 


142    SOCIAL   MESSAGE   OF  THE   MODERN    PULPIT 

We  had  a  fairly  correct  reproduction  of  it  several 
years  ago  in  the  situation  among  the  anthracite 
miners  in  Pennsylvania,  when  their  leaders  began  to 
grapple  with  that  problem.  The  coal  operators  in 
that  field  had  been  insistent  upon  a  high  tariff,  to 
"  protect  American  industry  "  they  said,  and  were 
meanwhile  assisting  in  the  immigration  of  Poles  and 
Hungarians,  Austrians  and  Italians  of  the  lower 
type  to  beat  down  the  rate  of  wages  in  Pennsylvania 
by  an  oversupply  of  labor  near  the  industries  they 
conducted.  There  were  at  that  time  about  one  hun- 
dred and  forty-seven  thousand  coal  miners  at  work 
there,  on  such  hard  terms  that  great  numbers  of 
English  and  Scotch,  German  and  Welsh  miners 
had  been  driven  out  because  of  their  inability  to 
compete  with  that  lower  standard  of  living.  For  a 
term  of  years  these  unorganized  men  had  been  suf- 
fering injustice  in  long  hours  and  low  wages;  in 
unjust  "  docking "  and  exorbitant  charges  for  the 
powder  used,  which  was  furnished  from  the  com- 
pany stores;  from  an  average  yearly  employment  of 
only  one  hundred  and  eleven  days,  as  the  commis- 
sion appointed  by  President  Roosevelt  discovered; 
and  from  a  scale  of  living  too  low  to  be  called  hu- 
man. The  haughty  attitude  of  the  operators,  who 
refused  to  meet  the  representatives  of  the  men  when 
they  were  finally  gotten  together  in  an  organization, 


CALL   OF   AN   INDUSTRIAL   DELIVERER       143 

saying,  "  We  have  nothing  to  arbitrate,"  was  dis- 
heartening, but  even  more  trying  was  the  despond- 
ent, distracted  feeling  among  the  miners  them- 
selves. The  dull,  sodden  material  with  which  the 
prophet  or  reformer  must  oftentimes  deal  in  working 
out  his  aspiration  into  genuine  accomplishment  be- 
comes one  of  the  most  serious  impediments  to  the 
progress  of  any  worthy  movement. 

But  the  very  gravity  of  the  situation  and  the  huge 
obstacles  standing  in  the  way  of  advance  make  the 
call  for  inspired  and  unselfish  leadership  all  the 
more  imperative.  They  act  as  a  challenge  to  the 
heroic  stuff  which  must  enter  into  the  composition 
of  any  man  worthy  to  hold  the  prophetic  office. 
They  are  like  the  Master's  words  to  those  two  as- 
piring young  men  who  were  eager  to  sit,  one  upon 
His  right  hand  and  the  other  upon  His  left.  "  Can 
ye  drink  the  cup  that  I  drink,  and  be  baptized  with 
the  baptism  I  am  baptized  with?"  He  asked  them. 
The  very  challenge  embodied  in  His  words  summoned 
into  action  their  moral  reserves — in  words  of  ring- 
ing confidence  they  replied,  "  We  can !  "  It  was, 
indeed,  "  the  venture  of  faith,"  the  sense  of  joyous 
reliance  upon  those  unseen  aids  which  would  sus- 
tain them  as  supporting  allies,  which  thus  led  them 
to  accept  the  call  to  hard  service.  And  in  terms 
no  less  searching,  you,  too,  as  young  men  who  are 


144    SOCIAL  MESSAGE   OF  THE  MODERN   PULPIT 

candidates  for  the  Christian  ministry,  will  be  called 
upon  to  drink  the  cup  of  willing  sacrifice  and  to  be 
baptized  with  power  from  on  high,  in  order  that  you 
may  furnish  your  full  share  of  moral  leadership  in 
this  work  of  social  advance. 


CHAPTER   V 

RADICAL,    CHANGE    IN    THE    SOCIAL    ENVIRONMENT 

THE  whole  industrial  framework  in  which  those  an- 
cient Israelites  found  themselves  in  the  days  of 
]\foses  was  so  filled  with  injustice  and  oppression 
that  their  divinely  appointed  leader  regarded  it  as 
useless  to  hope  for  spiritual  progress  on  their  part 
until  that  environment  was  changed.  But  the  pre- 
vailing system  was  greatly  to  the  advantage  of  Pha- 
raoh and  his  nobles,  and  they  would  naturally  rally 
to  its  defence.  The  whole  superstructure  of  society 
in  that  part  of  Egypt,  resting  as  it  did  economically 
upon  the  unrequited  labor  of  those  slaves,  was  in 
great  measure  dependent  for  its  ease  upon  the  con- 
tinuance of  the  existing  regime.  The  social  order 
thus  intrenched  and  fortified  seemed  altogether  too 
strong  to  be  radically  altered  by  any  effort  of  the 
oppressed  people  themselves.  Moses  therefore  de- 
cided that  the  only  way  of  advance  lay  in  the  trans- 
fer of  the  Israelites  to  some  new  field. 

The  same  stern  necessity  for  radical  modification 
of  the  existing  order  obtains  now  in  many  situations 

145 


146    SOCIAL  MESSAGE   OF  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

where  spiritual  progress  is  still  effectively  hindered 
by  the  evils  inherent  in  that  order.  The  people  who 
suffer  from  these  wrong  conditions  cannot  gain  re- 
lief by  emigrating  to  some  other  country,  for  all 
modern  countries  are  under  the  same  stress.  Relief 
can  only  come  as  all  hands  take  hold  together  to  ac- 
complish what  those  Egyptians  should  have  accom- 
plished on  behalf  of  the  oppressed  Israelites  who 
were  suffering  because  of  wrong  industrial  methods, 
viz.,  eliminate  the  evils  of  an  iniquitous  system.  If 
a  captive  sailor  on  a  pirate  ship,  who  had  been  given 
the  enforced  option  of  walking  the  plank  or  joining 
the  thieving  crew,  would  undertake  to  become  a 
Christian  and  live  a  right  life,  he  must  either  leave 
that  ship  or  else  address  himself  to  the  hard  task  of 
changing  its  whole  method  and  purpose.  He  could 
not  remain  a  consenting  member  of  such  a  crew,  par- 
ticipating in  the  rewards  of  such  a  system,  and  keep 
his  conscience  clear  or  make  any  sort  of  spiritual 
headway.  It  matters  not  to  what  extent  he  might 
strive  to  cultivate  an  individual  and  private  piety — 
he  might  sing  hymns,  read  his  Bible,  and  pray  with 
all  the  earnestness  and  regularity  imaginable — he 
would  not  in  this  way  obtain  spiritual  peace,  while  he 
allowed  the  piratical  order  which  brought  him  his 
daily  bread  to  remain  unattacked. 

I  purposely  choose  a  glaring  illustration — it  is  not 


CHANGE  IN  THE  SOCIAL  ENVIRONMENT       147 

put  forward  as  an  accurate  picture  of  existing  con- 
ditions— but  the  essential  principle  indicated  in  my 
use  of  it  is  altogether  sound  and  may  be  extensively 
applied.  If  some  of  the  prevalent  industrial  meth- 
ods actually  prevent  men  from  rendering  obedience 
to  the  teachings  of  Christ,  must  not  these  men  also 
either  get  out  or  strive  to  change  the  evil  features 
of  the  system?  Conscientious  business  men  to-day 
in  declining  the  minister's  invitation  to  join  the 
church  frequently  assign  as  their  reason  that  under 
present  conditions  they  cannot  undertake  to  obey 
Christ.  The  man  who  is  conducting  a  large  depart- 
ment-store, which  makes  gain  by  selling  certain  ar- 
ticles below  cost  for  a  definite  period  until  smaller 
concerns  in  that  line  have  been  crushed  out  of  ex- 
istence, and  who  feels  compelled  to  that  course  by 
the  current  competitive  methods,  finds  it  difficult  to 
render  any  proper  obedience  to  the  Golden  Kule. 
The  manufacturer,  who  follows  the  way  of  the  world 
in  fixing  the  rate  of  wages  for  his  factory  hands, 
and  who,  because  of  the  stern  pressure  of  a  system, 
does  not  quite  see  how  he  could  do  otherwise,  is 
somewhat  confused  at  being  told  that  a  fundamental 
demand  of  Christ  is  that  we  love  our  neighbors  as 
ourselves.  These  examples  might  be  multiplied  in- 
definitely, and  they  make  plain  this  truth,  that  the 
essential  spirit  of  the  organized  life  itself  must  be 


148    SOCIAL  MESSAGE   OF  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

changed  if  the  individuals  concerned  in  it  are  to  live 
a  properly  regenerate  life.  It  was  not  the  purpose 
of  Jesus  that  live  men  should  be  taken  out  of  the 
world,  but  that  they  should  be  delivered  from  the 
evil  of  it;  and  there  is  consequently  an  insistent  de- 
mand for  better  methods  which  will  make  it  possi- 
ble for  good  men  in  their  every-day  work  to  live 
out  the  love  they  feel  for  their  fellows. 

Employers  and  employes  alike  are  under  the  stress 
of  an  unnatural  pressure.  The  actual  yearly  wage 
of  many  working-men  compels  them  to  adopt  a  style 
of  living  not  adapted  to  mental  or  moral  growth. 
And  even  with  this  low  standard  it  is  a  constant 
struggle  to  secure  enough  to  satisfy  their  actual 
needs.  Life  becomes  an  unceasing  effort  to  avoid 
open,  painful,  degrading  poverty.  And  on  the  other 
hand,  many  of  the  employers  of  these  same  men 
are  themselves  in  a  life-and-death  struggle  to  avoid 
bankruptcy.  The  mercantile  agencies  tell  us  that 
something  like  ninety  per  cent  of  all  the  men  who 
go  into  business  fail  at  some  time  during  their  com- 
mercial history.  The  man  who  enters  business  with 
a  true  Christian  purpose  is  compelled  to  compete 
with  men  who  are  not  embarrassed  by  any  such 
scruples.  He  is  sometimes  driven  to  make  his  choice 
between  adopting  the  current  methods,  or  going  out 
of  business,  or  making  financial  failure.  The  more 


CHANGE   IN  THE  SOCIAL  ENVIRONMENT      149 

(  . 

generous  conduct  of  his  own  business  may  mean  that 
he  will  be  undersold  by  some  sharp  competitor;  and 
because  many  people  will  always  buy  where  they  can 
buy  cheapest,  regardless  of  other  considerations,  he 
may  find  himself  thrust  to  the  wall  for  his  pains. 
All  this  shows  that  there  is  something  wrong  with 
the  spirit  of  the  system. 

Furthermore,  is  it  possible  to-day,  under  present 
conditions,  to  stand  up  and  tell  an  audience  of  work- 
ing-people what  Jesus  told  His  hearers?  "Be  not 
anxious  for  the  morrow  as  to  what  ye  shall  eat  or 
what  ye  shall  drink  or  wherewithal  ye  shall  be 
clothed:  seek  ye  first  the  kingdom  of  God,  and  all 
these  things  shall  be  added  unto  you."  Be  not 
anxious?  Thousands  of  them  under  present  condi- 
tions must  be  anxious !  They  can  see  for  themselves 
that  many  sober,  frugal,  industrious  wage-earners 
work  all  their  lives,  barely  meeting  the  inevitable 
expenses,  haunted  all  the  while  with  the  fear  of  ac- 
cident, illness,  or  death  in  their  families,  which  would 
bring  obligations  they  would  not  know  how  to  meet. 
And  during  those  active  years  there  is  stealing  on 
the  inevitable  old  age,  with  the  clear  possibility  of 
loss  of  work  because  of  inability  to  longer  keep  the 
pace.  Seeking  the  kingdom  of  God  as  an  experience 
of  personal  piety  will  not  surely  bring  them  a  com- 
petence.. Th<?  kingdom  of  God,  which  is  to  be  sought 


150    SOCIAL  MESSAGE  OF  THE  MODERN  PULPIT 

by  them  and  by  us  and  by  all  hands  taking  hold  to- 
gether, is  a  much  larger  affair  than  individual  and 
private  piety.  It  includes  such  a  reorganization  of 
the  industrial  forces  and  such  an  equitable  use  of  the 
resources  placed  at  our  command,  as  shall  make  it 
possible  for  all  right-minded  and  industrious  people 
to  gain  those  necessary  supplies  without  constant 
and  distressing  anxiety. 

There  has  been  a  feeling  prevalent  in  the  minds 
of  many  religious  people  that  these  efforts  to  modify 
the  existing  environment  have  in  them  a  certain 
worldly  and  secular  element;  and  that  they  there- 
fore lie  somewhat  outside  the  field  of  true  religious 
effort.  The  church  has,  in  long  periods  of  its  his- 
tory, been  deficient  in  its  attention  to  the  influence 
of  environment  upon  character,  and  its  reluctance, 
when  urged  to  cooperate  with  other  agencies  for  the 
improvement  of  physical  surroundings,  has  been  to 
its  discredit.  Scientific  research  has  demonstrated 
that,  given  time  enough  and  a  slowly  changing  en- 
vironment, water-breathing,  marine  forms  of  life  can 
be  actually  changed  into  air-breathing  land  forms — 
and  this  without  the  introduction  of  any  modifying 
influences  other  than  those  resident  in  the  environ- 
ment. It  will  be  made  clear  in  due  time,  by  a  more 
thorough  study  of  the  influence  registered  by  sur- 
rounding conditions  upon  spiritual  unfolding,  that 


CHANGE   IN  THE  SOCIAL  ENVIRONMENT      151 

this  radical  physical  transformation  has  its  counter- 
part in  the  world  of  moral  values. 

The  Master  clearly  recognized  the  power  of  en- 
vironment. Right  in  the  forefront  of  that  series  of 
parables  touching  the  coming  kingdom  He  set  "  the 
Parable  of  the  Soil,"  as  it  is  correctly  styled.  In 
the  varying  fortunes  of  the  seed,  cast  as  it  was  into 
varying  soils,  He  portrayed  the  conditioning  power 
of  physical  surroundings  upon  spiritual  progress. 
The  one  who  sowed  the  good  seed,  He  said,  was 
"  the  Son  of  man,"  yet  even  where  the  germs  of 
new  life  fell  from  the  perfect  hand  of  the  Incarnate 
One  Himself,  the  hope  of  a  harvest  was  either  de- 
stroyed or  sadly  blighted  where  the  seed  fell  into 
weedy  or  into  stony  or  into  shallow  soil.  And  even 
where  the  seed  fell  into  good  soil,  fit  and  prepared 
for  the  purpose,  the  varying  fertility  of  that  good 
soil  made  inevitable  a  varying  harvest,  here  thirty- 
fold,  there  sixty,  and  only  in  exceptional  spots  as 
much  as  a  hundred-fold.  This  parable  of  the  soil, 
set  out  in  the  very  foreground  of  those  parables 
which  portray  the  methods  of  the  unfolding  spirit- 
ual kingdom  which  Jesus  came  to  establish,  makes 
plain  the  duty  of  His  church  to  give  more  serious 
and  radical  attention  than  has  been  its  custom  dur- 
ing long  stretches  of  its  history,  to  the  direct  bearing 
of  social  environment  upon  moral  character. 


152    SOCIAL  MESSAGE  OF  THE  MODERN  PULPIT 

The  effort  of  the  church  haa  too  often  been  di- 
rected exclusively  to  the  regeneration  of  the  individ- 
ual considered  quite  apart  from  that  system  of 
things  in  which  he  was  a  consenting  or  maybe  a 
controlling  item.  Some  evangelists  have  steadily 
preached  as  if  the  two  texts  in  the  Bible  to  be  taken 
literally,  and  to  be  urged  with  all  possible  vigor, 
were  these :  "  Except  a  man  be  born  again  he  cannot 
see  the  kingdom  of  God,"  and  "  Believe  on  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  and  thou  shalt  be  saved  ";  those  exten- 
sive portions  of  Scripture  which  deal  with  social 
interests  being  treated  apparently  as  if  they  were  all 
more  or  less  figurative,  or  else  simply  explanatory 
of  the  one  idea  of  individual  piety.  But  Jesus 
preached  constantly  "  tBe  kingdom  of  God,"  not 
merely  as  a  mode  of  personal  experience,  but  still 
more  as  a  new  social  order  to  be  attained  by  men 
acting  together  in  His  spirit.  It  has  been  justly  said 
that  many  people  have  been  more  ready  to  trust 
Jesus  to  deliver  them  from  the  hell  of  which  He 
spoke  but  rarely,  than  to  believe  Him  competent  to 
establish  that  finer  social  order  on  which  He  dwelt 
habitually  in  His  utterances  regarding  the  kingdom. 
The  need  for  His  larger  message  is  apparent  in  the 
fact  that  theretare  to-day  vast  numbers  of  regenerate 
people,  devoted  and  sincere  as  to  those  duties  which 
belong  to  personal  piety,  who  are  nevertheless  stead- 


CHANGE  IN  THE  SOCIAL  ENVIRONMENT      153 

ily  causing  trouble  by  social  wrong-doing  and  who 
are  uninterested  in  the  more  radical  efforts  to  cure 
it  because  of  their  defective  sense  of  social  responsi- 
bility. 

This  "  kingdom,"  of  which  Jesus  said  so  much, 
was  not  a  mere  subjective  experience  of  the  soul,  nor 
was  it  simply  a  perfect  rule  of  life  for  the  individual. 
In  fact,  about  the  only  expression  which  gives  any 
countenance  to  such  a  view  is  the  statement,  "  The 
kingdom  of  heaven  is  within  you,"  or,  more  properly, 
as  in  the  Revised  Version,  "  among  you " — indi- 
cating that  the  beginnings  of  the  new  social  order 
were  already  present.  The  kingdom  is  represented  as 
something  objective — a  mustard-seed  growing  grad- 
ually into  a  mighty  tree,  a  mass  of  meal  permeated 
by  a  new  principle,  a  wedding  feast  entered  upon  in 
the  right  spirit,  a  company  of  laborers  in  a  vineyard 
dominated  by  loyalty  to  an  unseen  Master  and  by 
fraternal  feeling  for  one  another.  The  kingdom  of 
heaven  is  an  objective  fact  and  not  a  mere  inner 
experience. 

This  kingdom  was  not  a  distant  state  to  which 
men  were  to  go  at  death — the  kingdom  was  to  come; 
it  was  to  come  down,  like  a  holy  city  out  of  heaven, 
finding  its  secure  foundations  in  nobler  conditions 
of  earthly  life  as  these  came  to  be  dominated  by  the 
spirit  of  the  Master.  "  By  the  kingdom  of  God 


154    SOCIAL  MESSAGE   OF  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

Jesus  meant,"  according  to  Shailer  Mathews,  "  an 
ideal  social  order  in  which  the  relations  of  men  to 
God  should  be  that  of  sons,  and  to  each  other  that 
of  brothers."  In  such  an  order  the  cruel  inequali- 
ties, the  hopeless  struggles  of  the  weak,  the  savage 
selfishness  sometimes  manifested  in  industrial  life, 
would  inevitably  vanish.  This  new  social  environ- 
ment, then,  made  up  of  renewed  men  and  of  institu- 
tions which  should  embody  the  spirit  and  method  of 
the  Master,  into  which  every  child  should  be  born 
as  into  his  native  element  for  the  realization  of  his 
true  life,  men  were  to  seek  first;  and  in  the  gaining 
of  it,  all  these  things,  food,  drink,  raiment,  and  the 
rest,  would  indeed  be  added  to  every  industrious  soul 
without  the  fret  and  care  of  a  consuming  anxiety. 

The  entire  impression  which  any  fair-minded  man 
without  previous  theological  bias  would  get  in  read- 
ing the  four  gospels  would  be  that  Jesus  never  re- 
garded the  world  as  in  any  sense  a  wreck.  He  was 
not  seeking  to  get  a  few  men  off  of  it,  and  out  of  it, 
and,  by  their  individual  piety,  safely  up  into  heaven. 
He  regarded  this  present  world  as  a  ship  which  the 
human  race  could  learn  to  sail  and  on  which  they 
could  maintain  an  existence  worthy  to  be  esteemed 
a  high  privilege  to  every  soul  aboard.  He  saw  that 
many  were  still  sea-sick  and  uncomfortable;  many 
were  being  bruised  and  broken  by  movements  to 


CHANGE  IN  THE  SOCIAL  ENVIRONMENT      155 

which  they  had  not  adjusted  themselves;  many  were 
frightened  and  anxious,  the  greater  part  of  the  time, 
as  to  their  personal  safety.  But  all  this  was  to  be 
temporary — they  were  to  learn  how  to  make  such 
assignments  of  duty,  how  to  organize  such  a  ship's 
crew,  and  how  to  adjust  matters  for  everybody 
aboard  as  to  make  the  voyage  of  life  safe,  inspiring, 
and  joyous.  This  I  believe  to  be  the  main  trend  of 
the  teaching  of  Jesus  in  His  utterances  regarding  the 
kingdom;  and  it  surely  furnishes  us  with  high  script- 
ural warrant  for  our  attempt  to  correct  the  evils  of 
environment  and  for  expecting  the  actual  regenera- 
tion of  society  itself. 

But  for  those  oppressed  Israelites,  to  whom  I  must 
return,  without  possessions  or  recognized  rights, 
without  experience  or  any  considerable  insight,  op- 
posed as  they  were  by  an  old,  rich,  and  powerful 
regime  there  in  the  valley  of  the  Nile,  the  only  hope 
of  any  radical  improvement  in  outward  condition  lay 
in  flight.  There  was  a  providential  preparation  for 
such  a  movement  in  a  series  of  public  calamities 
which  at  that  time  befell  the  land  of  Egypt.  The 
form  these  calamities  took  was  such  as  to  humble 
and  dishearten  the  oppressors,  until  in  their  despera- 
tion they  were  actually  ready  to  allow  the  slaves  to 
go  free.  The  calamities  were  also  of  such  a  charac- 
ter as  to  produce  a  conviction  in  the  minds  of  the 


156    SOCIAL   MESSAGE   OF  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

Israelites  that  the  Supreme  Power  behind  all  phe- 
nomena was  strongly  enlisted  on  their  side;  and  this 
assurance  begat  in  them,  for  brief  periods  at  least, 
a  real  confidence  that  a  freer  and  nobler  life  was 
indeed  within  their  reach. 

The  water  of  the  Nile  ran  red  as  blood,  as  if 
stained  with  guilt  by  the  oppression  along  its  shores. 
The  annual  overflow  of  the  river  was  followed  by 
the  spawning  of  frogs  upon  the  wet  fields  in  such 
unprecedented  numbers  that  they  became  an  offence. 
As  the  season  wore  on,  myriads  of  lice,  and  then  of 
flies,  and  then  of  locusts,  came  upon  all  the  face  of 
Egypt,  destroying  alike  the  comfort  of  men  and  the 
harvests  of  the  field.  A  grievous  disease  or  murrain 
broke  out  among  the  cattle;  an  epidemic  of  boils, 
or,  as  it  would  probably  be  termed  to-day,  bubonic 
plague,  ran  its  fearful  course  among  men.  Still  later 
one  of  those  sand-storms,  which  sometimes  darken 
the  sky  until  one  can  scarcely  see  his  hand  before 
him,  swept  in  from  the  desert,  and  the  city  on  the 
Xile  groped  in  a  darkness  that  could  be  felt.  And 
then  a  hail-storm  of  extraordinary  severity  stripped 
the  trees  of  their  foliage,  the  fields  of  their  crops, 
and  even  destroyed  the  lives  of  men  and  of  beasts. 
All  these  visitations  came  with  a  certain  cumulative 
effect  in  a  progressive  intensity.  The  narrative  as 
it  stands  seems  to  be  the  work  of  an  author  who,  as  a 


CHANGE   IN  THE   SOCIAL  ENVIRONMENT      157 

genuine  artist,  gathered  up,  summarized,  and  put  in 
striking  literary  form  the  accounts  of  a  long  series 
of  calamities,  which  stretched  out,  it  maybe,  over 
many  years.  He  did  it  that  he  might  give  dramatic 
statement  to  this  truth,  that  God's  judgments  fall 
heavily  and  steadily  upon  social  injustice  and  selfish 
inhumanity. 

The  calamities  themselves,  when  we  study  them 
carefully,  are  seen  to  bear  a  close  relationship  to 
the  environment,  for  it  is  the  divine  habit  to  use 
materials  already  at  hand  in  the  accomplishment  of 
its  purposes.  The  water  of  the  Nile,  in  modern 
times,  has  occasionally,  by  the  unusual  deposit  of 
sediment  and  red  clay,  been  rendered  unfit  for  use. 
In  the  wet  season  frogs,  and  in  the  dry  season  flies 
and  lice  and  locusts  have  come  occasionally  in  unpre- 
cedented numbers,  even  as  the  grasshoppers  became  a 
perfect  scourge  in  our  own  Kansas  for  two  succes- 
sive years,  and  then  came  again  no  more.  So  the 
sand-storm  and  the  hail,  the  murrain  and  the  bu- 
bonic plague,  are  not  unknown  in  the  life  of  that 
land.  Providence  uses  means  already  at  hand,  as 
Jesus  indicated,  when,  in  His  classic  illustration  of 
God's  kindly  care,  He  pointed  to  the  clothing  of  the 
lilies  and  the  feeding  of  the  birds,  not  by  a  succes- 
sion of  miracles,  or  by  any  miracle  at  all,  but 
through  the  constant  operation  of  those  great  natural 


agencies  which  stand  as  an  abiding  expression  of 
God's  interest  in  all  that  He  has  made. 

It  is  one  of  the  limitations  of  some  of  the  Old 
Testament  writers  that  they  were  inclined  to  make 
the  connection  between  wrong-doing  and  all  manner 
of  misfortune  so  clear  and  so  close  as  sometimes  to 
overreach  themselves.  We  find  this  weak  spot  in 
their  theological  system  pointed  out  and  discussed 
at  length  in  the  Book  of  Job,  as  well  as  in  other 
parts  of  the  Scriptures.  But  the  man  who  suffered 
such  dire  misfortune  in  the  land  of  Hz  was  not  an 
evil-doer — he  was  a  sound,  straight,  God-fearing, 
evil-hating  man — and  some  truer  explanation  of  the 
calamities  which  befell  him  had  to  be  found.  The 
men  on  whom  the  tower  of  Siloam  fell  were  not 
sinners  above  all  the  men  in  Jerusalem;  nor  was  a 
certain  man  born  blind  because  of  exceptional  wick- 
edness on  the  part  of  his  parents.  There  are  un- 
solved questions  and  puzzling  remainders  in  the 
ordering  of  the  physical  world  which  present  insight 
cannot  fully  explain.  We  shall  fall  into  many  an 
error  if  we  insist  upon  connecting  every  great  dis- 
aster, like  that  of  the  destruction  of  San  Francisco  by 
earthquake  and  fire,  with  some  wrong-doing  on  the 
part  of  those  who  directly  suffer  from  it 

Yet  the  true  moral  content  of  this  narrative  of 
the  ten  plagues  is  absolutely  sound.  It  will  not  al- 


CHANGE   IN  THE  SOCIAL  ENVIRONMENT      159 

ways  be  found  true  that  a  ruler  or  a  slave-owner  or 
an  employer  guilty  of  injustice  and  cruelty  will  be 
overtaken  by  precisely  such  calamities  as  are  here 
described — by  hail-stones  and  darkness,  by  flies  and 
frogs,  by  lice  and  locusts,  by  grievous  boils  and 
deadly  murrain — this  may  or  may  not  be  so.  But 
it  is  forever  true  that  selfish  inhumanity  in  organized 
life  will  be  overtaken  by  industrial  darkness  and 
storm;  it  will  be  stung  and  bitten  by  myriads  of 
petty  annoyances;  it  will  be  made  sick  and  sore  by 
the  outbreak  of  social  disease.  And  what  is  more 
serious  than  all  this,  the  effect  of  inhuman  and  op- 
pressive methods  upon  the  man  himself  who  is 
guilty  of  them,  and  upon  his  children,  is  disastrous 
beyond  anything  here  suggested  in  this  narrative  of 
physical  calamities.  The  sore  plagues  of  the  divine 
disapproval  fasten  themselves  in  moral  blight  upon 
such  a  man's  household.  In  that  utter  defeat  of  the 
dearest  hopes  of  some  family  which  has  grown  rich 
by  taking  unfair  advantage  of  the  helpless — a  defeat 
frequently  witnessed  in  modern  society — we  see  writ- 
ten in  a  plain  hand  the  stern  rebuke  of  the  Almighty 
Himself.  God's  judgments  upon  the  contempt  men 
show  for  the  high  ideals  He  holds  before  them  come 
now  in  one  form  and  now  in  another — the  chariots 
which  bear  the  divine  penalties  are  twenty  thousand 
— but  they  surely  come,  and  the  stately  procession 


160    SOCIAL  AIESSAGE   OF  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

of  His  great  rebukes  is  never  long  delayed.  Down 
through  the  ages  He  has  been  steadily  calling  to 
those  men  who  were  dealing  harshly  with  their  help- 
less fellows,  "  Let  my  people  go,  that  they  may  serve 
me;  if  thou  refuse,  I  will  smite  all  thy  borders." 

We  have  here  in  our  own  country  at  this  time 
what  is  often  called  "  the  white  plague,"  the  disease 
known  as  tuberculosis  of  the  lungs.  All  the  deaths 
from  cholera  and  small-pox,  from  diphtheria  and 
scarlet-fever,  sink  into  insignificance  when  compared 
with  the  steady  ravages  of  tuberculosis.  In  the 
United  States  alone  there  were  one  hundred  and 
fifty  thousand  deaths  last  year  from  this  dread  dis- 
ease, and  at  the  present  time  there  are,  according 
to  the  tabulated  reports  of  the  State  boards  of 
health,  one  million  two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand 
cases  of  tuberculosis  in  this  country  of  ours.  If  the 
present  ratio  is  kept  up,  ten  millions  out  of  the 
eighty  millions  composing  the  population  of  our 
country  will  die  from  this  one  disease — that  is,  one 
in  every  eight  of  all  our  people  will  fall  a  victim 
to  tuberculosis.  The  peril  which  confronts  society 
in  the  presence  of  these  myriads  of  death-dealing 
germs  is  one  of  the  gravest  problems  in  modern 
medical  science. 

And  when  the  Tenement-House  Commission  in 
the  City  of  New  York  made  its  report  some  time  ago, 


CHANGE   IN  THE  SOCIAL  ENVIRONMENT      161 

among  the  many  items  of  vital  importance  they 
noted  the  fact  that  there  were  twenty  thousand  con- 
sumptives in  the  tenement-houses  of  New  York 
alone.  Each  consumptive  can,  we  are  told,  expec- 
torate in  a  day  seven  millions  of  germs  or  bacilli. 
These  sputa  from  the  diseased  lungs  dry  and  are 
afterward  blown  about  in  the  dust  through  the  tene- 
ment-houses, and  in  the  streets,  in  the  theatres, 
street-cars  and  railway  trams,  as  well  as  into  offices, 
factories,  and  the  open  windows  of  the  well-to-do. 
These  germs  are  soon  killed  by  sunshine,  but  they 
live,  as  a  frightful  menace  to  health,  for  months 
together,  in  damp  or  in  dark  places.  These  poor 
consumptives  in  the  tenement  district  have  not  been 
carefully  instructed  regarding  their  social  responsi- 
bility as  possessors  of  such  a  disease;  and  even  had 
they  been,  they  might  not  unnaturally  feel  that,  in- 
asmuch as  society  has  shown  so  little  care  for  their 
interests,  it  is  not  imperative  that  they  should  exer- 
cise the  utmost  caution  touching  the  public  health. 
There  they  work  on  from  sheer  necessity  in  the 
sweat  shops  of  the  great  city,  making  neckties,  cheap 
boys'  clothing,  and  underwear  for  the  trade.  There 
they  sit  breathing  out  disease  and  stitching  it  into 
the  garments  they  make,  sending  out  the  germs  of 
death  broadcast  over  the  land!  The  cast-off  skin 
of  some  rattlesnake  would  be  a  clean  and  wholesome 


162    SOCIAL  MESSAGE   OF  THE  MODERN   PULPIT 

garment  as  compared  with  this  sweat-shop  clothing, 
which  pious  merchants,  for  a  sufficient  consideration, 
sometimes  buy  and  sell,  with  the  sentence  of  death 
woven  into  its  very  fibre.  The  close  quarters  and 
the  foul  air,  the  insufficient  food  and  the  cold,  damp 
rooms,  because  fuel  is  high  and  wages  are  small, 
all  serve  to  make  these  workrooms  admirable  cult- 
ure grounds  for  these  germs  of  disease,  which  are 
to  be  speedily  sent  out  into  half  the  States  of  the 
Union. 

And  what  does  all  this  frightful  menace  to  the 
national  health  mean  but  a  modern  embodiment  of 
the  truth  contained  in  that  old  Exodus  narrative. 
God  be  praised  for  microbes  and  bacilli!  They  are 
great  promoters  of  human  sympathy  and  of  the 
sense  of  social  responsibility.  They  preach  the  gos- 
pel of  brotherhood  far  and  wide,  saying,  in  such 
tones  that  people  are  bound  to  sit  up  and  listen, 
"We  are  all  members  one  of  another;  if  one  neg- 
lected member  suffer,  all  the  other  members  may,  by 
reason  of  these  very  germs,  be  called  upon  to  suf- 
fer with  it."  Out  of  those  wretched  tenements,  with 
their  pinched  faces,  narrow  chests,  and  hollow 
coughs,  the  voice  of  God  comes,  and  it  says  again 
as  it  said  of  old,  "  Deliver  my  people  from  these 
inhuman  conditions;  if  thou  shalt  refuse,  I  will 
smite  all  thy  borders  with  the  white  plague." 


CHANGE   IN  THE  SOCIAL  ENVIRONMENT      163 

And  it  is  to  be  remembered,  also,  that  this  menace 
to  physical  well-being  is  but  an  outward  and  visible 
symbol  of  an  inward  and  spiritual  peril  which 
threatens  the  souls  of  those  who  are  content  to  live 
on  indifferent  to  the  needs  and  claims  of  their  less 
fortunate  fellows.  Upon  them  and  upon  their  chil- 
dren, wherever  they  can  justly  be  held  responsible 
for  conditions  which  work  injury  to  the  helpless, 
there  comes  the  blight  of  a  moral  tuberculosis  which 
works  frightful  and  lasting  havoc  upon  the  more 
precious  interests  of  the  inner  life! 

In  the  long  run  it  is  a  very  just  old  world  we 
live  in.  Pay-day  does  not  come  every  Saturday 
night,  nor  do  the  Lord's  harvests  recur  each  year, 
but  they  all  come!  Just  as  sure  as  sunrise  and  sun- 
set, whatsoever  men  and  nations  and  systems  sow, 
that — not  some  fancy  substitute  for  it,  but  that — 
shall  they  also  reap!  The  house  or  the  industry  or 
the  national  life  built  upon  the  practice  of  hearing 
these  sayings  of  Christ  and  doing  them,  stands.  And 
the  house  or  the  industry  or  the  national  life  built 
upon  the  practice  of  hearing  these  sayings  of  His 
and  doing  them  not,  falls  under  the  combined  attack 
of  the  winds  and  the  waves  which  are  sure  to  come 
and  beat  upon  it. 

Up  out  of  the  Nile,  flowing  red,  as  if  guilty  of  the 
blood  of  the  helpless  slaves  along  its  banks;  back 


164    SOCIAL  MESSAGE   OF  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

from  the  wet  swamps  where  crawled  the  myriads  of 
frogs;  down  from  the  upper  air  where  fluttered  the 
locusts  of  destruction;  straight  out  of  the  desert, 
with  its  sand-storm  and  darkness,  came  these  sym- 
bols of  powerful  and  unending  opposition  to  selfish 
inhumanity!  The  real  content  of  this  narrative  is 
altogether  applicable  to  the  conditions  of  life  in  any 
period  of  the  world's  history,  for  God  is  perpetually 
and  relentlessly  at  war  with  all  injustice  and  op- 
pression. Still  the  divine  voice  cries  out,  "  Deliver 
my  helpless  people  that  they  may  glorify  me;  if  thou 
refuse,  I  will  smite  all  thy  borders." 

These  particular  calamities  which  fell  upon  Egypt 
were  of  such  a  nature  that  they  struck  directly  at 
the  heart  of  Pharaoh  and  of  his  whole  system  of 
faith  and  practice  as  well.  It  was  no  ordinary  river 
which  became  vile  and  unfit  to  drink ;  it  was,  as  Stan- 
ley says,  "  the  sacred,  solitary,  beneficent  Nile,  the 
life  of  the  state  and  the  source  of  all  fertility,"  the 
object  of  a  reverence  almost  worshipful.  It  was 
upon  no  common  race  of  men  but  upon  "  the  clean- 
liest of  all  ancient  people  "  that  there  came  the  flies 
and  the  lice,  the  stench  of  the  frogs  and  the  plague 
of  boils.  It  was  no  ordinary  region  which  failed  in 
its  harvest,  but  the  rich  and  sure  Nile  delta,  which 
was  riddled  by  the  hail-storms  and  swept  clean  by 
the  locusts.  It  was  not  merely  the  common  beasts 


CHANGE   IN  THE  SOCIAL  ENVIRONMENT          165 

of  the  field  but  the  sacred  bull  Apis  that  groaned 
under  the  grievous  murrain.  When  these  calamities 
fell  upon  the  land  Pharaoh  no  longer  seemed  to 
himself  or  to  his  subjects  to  be  the  favored  of  heaven 
and  the  darling  of  the  gods — he  seemed  to  be 
mocked  and  beaten  by  some  mysterious  foe.  There 
are,  indeed,  penalties  for  wrong-doing  which  neither 
wealth  nor  royal  influence  is  able  to  ward  off.  There 
are  enemies  of  our  peace  which  enter  the  home  and 
the  heart  without  ever  asking  leave,  and  they  can- 
not be  expelled  by  anything  less  than  penitence,  new 
purpose,  and  the  divine  forgiveness. 

Pharaoh  was  at  first  inclined  to  humble  himself 
in  penitence  and  to  undertake  a  new  life.  He  sent 
for  Moses  and  said:  "I  have  sinned;  the  Lord  is 
righteous  and  I  and  my  people  are  wicked.  Entreat 
the  Lord  that  there  be  no  more  plagues  and  I  will 
let  Israel  go."  But,  "  when  Pharaoh  saw  that  the 
hail  and  thundering  were  ceased,  he  sinned  yet  more 
and  hardened  his  heart."  When  the  pain  stopped, 
like  many  a  modern  sufferer,  he  turned  again  to  the 
old  life  of  luxury  and  oppression.  "  The  devil  is 
sick,  the  devil  a  monk  would  be !  The  devil  is  well  " 
— you  will  recall  the  rest  of  it.  Pharaoh  hardened 
his  heart;  there  came  a  stiffening  of  the  will,  a  fresh 
opposition  to  the  divine  appeal.  And  this  opera- 
tion was  repeated  until  moral  opposition  to  the  will 


166    SOCIAL  MESSAGE   OF  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

of  God  and  an  inhuman  indifference  to  the  needs 
of  his  fellows  became  his  settled  character.  When 
God's  rebukes  and  entreaties  are  persistently  scorned 
the  inevitable  result  is  to  fix  the  character  in  op- 
position to  His  holy  will;  and,  finally,  between  that 
soul  and  the  holier  life  once  possible  "  there  is  a 
great  gulf  fixed "  which  cannot  in  any  wise  be 
crossed.  Pharaoh  became  stubborn  in  disobedience, 
yet  he  was  haunted  perpetually  by  an  awful  fear  that 
he  was  under  the  displeasure  of  some  mysterious  and 
supernatural  foe. 

The  courage  of  the  oppressed  Israelites,  on  the 
other  hand,  grew  mightily  during  these  painful  ca- 
lamities. A  power  not  of  man  seemed  to  be  hurl- 
ing its  effective  rebukes  against  their  oppressors. 
The  huge  system  which  held  them  in  its  grasp  had 
seemed  too  powerful  to  be  overthrown,  but  now  it 
was  shaken  like  a  reed  in  the  wind,  by  this  fore- 
runner of  a  brighter  day.  The  various  events  as  they 
occurred  were  interpreted  to  them  by  their  leader 
Moses — and  they  felt  the  full  force  of  it  when  he 
said,  "  The  Lord  shall  fight  for  you  and  ye  shall 
hold  your  peace."  The  great  Ally  did  indeed  seem 
to  be  drawing  up  His  forces,  tempest  and  darkness, 
plague  and  pestilence,  disease  and  death.  He  was 
setting  them  all  in  battle-array  against  Pharaoh  and 
his  host.  The  hour  of  deliverance  seemed  to  be 


CHANGE   IN  THE  SOCIAL  ENVIRONMENT      167 

drawing  nigh.  The  Israelites  began  to  actually  be- 
lieve in  that  unseen  Friend  who,  years  before,  out 
of  the  midst  of  a  bush  which  burned  with  a  strange 
fire,  had  declared  His  far-reaching  purpose.  "  I  am 
the  God  of  Abraham,  of  Isaac,  and  of  Jacob.  I  have 
seen  the  affliction  of  my  people;  I  have  heard  their 
cry  by  reason  of  their  taskmasters  and  I  am  come 
down  to  deliver  them."  Surely  that  great  fulfilment 
was  at  hand;  and,  finally,  when  Pharaoh's  first-born 
son,  the  heir  to  the  throne  of  Egypt,  died,  and  when 
other  deaths  throughout  the  land  had  filled  the  mas- 
ters of  those  slaves  with  a  mighty  dread,  Moses  called 
upon  the  people  to  rise  and  follow  him  in  a  splendid 
effort  for  their  freedom.  They  responded  to  his  call, 
and  in  an  hour  of  high  resolve  and  splendid  faith 
they  actually  threw  off  their  bondage  and  set  out 
for  the  land  of  promise. 

How  far  away  it  might  be  none  of  those  ignorant 
toilers  knew.  How  all  the  intervening  country  was 
to  be  traversed  they  could  not  say.  How  the  many 
problems  involved  in  the  occupation  of  new  territory, 
and  in  the  establishment  of  a  new  social  order  were 
to  be  solved,  not  even  Moses  could  have  told.  They 
only  knew  that  they  were  oppressed  and  were  not 
living  human  lives.  They  believed  that  the  Great 
Ally  had  something  better  in  store  for  them,  and 
was  pledged  to  its  realization.  And  with  that  feeling 


168    SOCIAL  MESSAGE   OF  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

of  sore  need,  and  in  that  hope  of  divine  help,  they 
started. 

Those  sagacious  people  who  tell  us  that  no  min- 
ister of  the  gospel,  no  reformer,  no  student  of  social 
conditions  ought  to  speak  in  public  about  these  seri- 
ous and  difficult  problems  which  confront  us  in  our 
modern  industrial  system  until  he  knows  just  what 
ought  to  be  done  and  just  how  it  can  be  done,  have 
certainly  failed  to  read  their  Bibles.  No  man  knows 
all  this !  But  shall  we  go  on  maintaining  an  inactive 
silence  until  we  know  all  the  windings  of  the  path- 
way to  better  conditions?  The  oppression  of  the 
helpless  is  a  fact.  The  call  for  deliverers  sounds 
from  bushes  which  burn  with  the  fire  of  social  sym- 
pathy on  all  the  hillsides  of  modern  life.  The  care- 
less indifference  of  many,  whose  fortunate  lives 
make  them  unmindful  of  the  toiling  multitude  on 
whose  bare  shoulders  rests  the  burden  of  their  own 
showy,  useless  luxury,  is  one  of  the  moral  reproaches 
of  modern  civilization.  The  fact  that  social  disaster 
and  wide-spread  calamity  follow  upon  selfish  inhu- 
manity is  plain  to  all  who  have  eyes  to  see!  Can 
men  of  insight  and  conscience,  then,  possibly  hold 
their  peace  until,  forsooth,  they  know  the  final  solu- 
tion? They  cannot  know  as  yet  what  that  better 
substitute  for  the  present  system  shall  be — they 
must  go  forward  feeling  their  way  as  did  these  Is- 


CHANGE  IN  THE  SOCIAL  ENVIRONMENT      169 

raelites  of  old.  Uncertain  as  they  are  on  many 
points,  unable  as  they  are  to  outline  a  complete  pro- 
gramme for  the  social  advance,  they  still  take  up 
and  echo  the  same  cry,  "  Speak  unto  the  children  of 
Israel  that  they  go  forward,"  in  the  quest  of  a  freer 
and  a  fuller  life. 

It  was  imperative  that  there  should  be  some  radi- 
cal change  in  the  environment  of  those  oppressed 
people  before  the  purpose  of  God  could  be  fulfilled 
for  them,  and  the  same  moral  necessity  for  an  im- 
proved social  environment  rests  upon  society  to-day. 
It  matters  not  how  highly  we  may  exalt  the  com- 
manding influence  of  a  regenerate  life  upon  the  pre- 
vailing conditions  in  the  social  order  where  that 
individual  life  is  set  down,  we  cannot  avoid  the  truth 
that  the  world  without  perpetually  lays  a  strong 
hand  of  influence  upon  the  life  within.  We  find  the 
recognition  of  this  truth  in  the  method  of  that  Eter- 
nal Purpose  which  stretched  across  the  ages,  in  the 
selection  of  a  time  and  place  for  that  supreme  mani- 
festation which  God  has  made  of  Himself  in  the 
person  of  His  Son.  When  the  Son  of  God  was  born 
into  the  world  He  was  "  born  in  Bethlehem  of  Judea, 
for  thus  it  was  written  by  the  prophets."  He  was 
born  into  an  environment  which  a  providential  pur- 
pose had  been  patiently  preparing  during  all  those 
preceding  centuries  of  unique  spiritual  experiences 


170    SOCIAL  MESSAGE  OF  THE  MODERN   PULPIT 

wrought  out  in  the  life  of  a  chosen  people.  He  was 
born,  too,  when  conditions  were  favorable  for  the 
establishment  of  His  kingdom.  "  In  the  fulness  of 
time,  God  sent  His  Son,"  for  the  prevalence  of  peace 
at  that  time,  the  unifying  of  the  world  around  the 
Mediterranean  under  the  rule  of  the  Roman  Em- 
pire, the  wide  diffusion  of  the  Greek  language  as  a 
fitting  instrument  for  the  conveyance  of  spiritual 
truth,  and  other  circumstances  in  the  environment, 
all  combined  to  make  the  Advent  timely  and  prom- 
ising. We  have  in  the  very  time  and  place  and 
manner  of  Christ's  entrance  into  this  world,  testi- 
mony borne  from  on  high  as  to  the  abiding  spiritual 
significance  of  environment. 

Those  who  lay  the  entire  burden  of  the  world's 
advance  upon  individual  regeneration  are  endeavor- 
ing to  row  their  boat  with  but  one  oar,  and  the  in- 
evitable circling  about  on  their  track  ensues.  It 
has  become  the  settled  conviction  of  many  minds 
that  slavish  deference  to  the  law  of  supply  and  de- 
mand, and  the  habit  of  ignoring  the  human  values, 
which  so  largely  prevails  in  many  modern  industries, 
effectually  block  the  way  of  spiritual  advance  for 
the  men  involved.  Employers  cannot  go  on  hiring 
men  for  the  lowest  wages  they  will  consent  to  take 
without  asking  as  to  the  effect  of  such  a  wage  on  the 
standard  of  living;  they  cannot  go  on  encouraging  the 


CHANGE   IN  THE  SOCIAL  ENVIRONMENT      171 

immigration  of  large  numbers  of  cheap  laborers  to 
the  vicinity  of  a  certain  industry,  that  wages  may 
be  forced  down  and  kept  down  by  cruel  competition 
among  the  men;  they  cannot  continue  to  discharge 
men  with  families  to  support,  when  boys  and  girls 
can  be  hired  to  do  the  work  at  a  lower  wage,  never 
inquiring  as  to  the  effect  of  such  action  upon  those 
families.  This  whole  habit  of  ignoring  the  law  of 
Christ  and  the  consideration  that  men  owe  to  one 
another  renders  such  a  social  group  not  much  better 
indeed  than  a  ship's  company  of  far-seeing,  hard- 
hearted pirates.  No  amount  of  money  given,  out  of 
the  rewards  of  an  industry  so  conducted,  to  charity 
to  care  for  the  unfortunate  lives  rendered  helpless 
largely  by  the  industry  itself,  can  ever  atone  for  a 
lack  of  resolute  effort  by  the  responsible  parties  to 
make  the  work  of  the  world,  no  less  than  its  worship 
and  its  charity,  an  expression  of  the  spirit  of  Jesus 
Christ. 

When  these  Israelites  undertook  to  secure  for 
themselves  a  more  wholesome  environment,  they 
made  their  start,  as  was  natural,  in  the  darkness  and 
cool  of  the  night.  Out  from  the  scenes  where  they 
had  suffered  in  mind  and  body,  out  of  those  condi- 
tions which  had  meant  the  enfeeblement  of  the 
higher  purpose  and  the  dwarfing  of  their  spiritual 
natures,  they  marched  away  toward  the  place  of 


172    SOCIAL  MESSAGE  OF  THE  MODERN  PULPIT 

freedom.  Uncertain  as  to  almost  all  of  the  steps  to 
be  taken  ultimately,  they  still  went  forward,  feeling 
within  their  hearts  a  divine  impulse  which  became 
to  them  at  last  as  a  pillar  of  cloud  by  day  and  of 
fire  by  night. 

The  next  evening  they  were  one  day's  march  upon 
the  road,  and  when  night  fell  they  were  encamped 
by  a  narrow  arm  of  the  Red  Sea.  "  The  Lord  led 
them  not  by  the  way  of  the  land  of  the  Philistines," 
the  narrator  tells  us,  "  although  that  was  near." 
The  short  cut  would  have  brought  them  to  their  new 
responsibilities  without  the  requisite  preparatory 
training;  and  this  might  have  brought  defeat  to  the 
entire  undertaking.  Such  a  course  would  have  been 
as  ill-advised  as  are  the  ready-made  programmes  and 
panaceas  for  social  ills  sometimes  offered  to-day, 
which  similarly  leave  out  of  account  the  necessity 
for  the  gradual  development  of  the  higher  type  of 
man  needed  for  the  working  of  the  new  regime  pro- 
posed. The  Israelites  therefore  were  divinely  com- 
manded to  take  the  long  road,  which  meant  years 
of  patient  effort  in  the  wild  life  of  the  rugged 
steppes,  which  included  also  a  long  and  educative 
encampment  at  the  foot  of  Mount  Sinai,  to  the  end 
that  they  might  be  trained  and  fitted  for  the  obliga- 
tions which  would  face  them  when  they  actually 
reached  the  land  of  promise. 


CHANGE   IN  THE   SOCIAL  ENVIRONMENT      173 

Here  before  them,  then,  at  the  close  of  the  first 
day's  march,  lay  the  arm  of  the  sea,  the  dividing 
line  between  the  old  life  and  the  new.  To  cross  this 
boundary  was  to  pass  from  Africa  into  Asia;  to  pass 
from  Egypt,  with  its  mighty  river  and  huge  struct- 
ures, its  significant  bull-worship  and  grinding  op- 
pression, its  elaborate,  burdensome,  unprogressive 
civilization,  over  into  Asia,  the  home  of  spiritual 
ideals,  the  cradle  of  all  the  great  religions  of  the 
world.  Abraham,  the  father  of  Judaism,  had  come 
up  out  of  the  valley  of  the  Euphrates,  in  Asia,  to 
establish  the  faith  of  their  fathers!  Gautama,  the 
rich  young  nobleman,  sat  for  six  long  years,  silent 
and  thoughtful,  under  the  bo-tree,  and  then,  by  his 
great  renunciation,  founded  Buddhism  in  Asia! 
Confucius,  whose  teaching  still  moulds  the  lives  of 
millions  in  populous  China,  was  a  man  of  Asia! 
Mohammed  came  up  from  Arabia,  in  Asia,  to  preach 
the  religion  of  the  Koran,  next  to  our  own  the  most 
powerful  and  aggressive  religion  the  world  has  ever 
known !  And  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  who  has  taken  the 
moral  government  of  the  world  upon  His  shoulder 
as  none  other  has  in  all  the  ages,  was  born  in  Beth- 
lehem of  Judea,  there  on  the  western  coast  of  Asia! 

Asiatics  they  were,  one  and  all,  these  leaders  and 
founders  of  the  world's  historic  faiths!  Israel  in 
crossing  the  arm  of  the  Red  Sea  was  moving  over  into 


174    SOCIAL   MESSAGE   OF  THE  MODERN   PULPIT 

the  seat  and  home  of  the  great  religions.  Much  of 
this  splendid  history  which  I  have  indicated  was  yet 
to  be  enacted,  but  the  spirit  of  Him  who  is  from  ever- 
lasting to  everlasting  looked  out  of  the  cloud  that 
day  upon  the  scattered  hosts,  and  He  saw  the  mighty 
significance  of  the  event,  when  the  Hebrews  made 
ready  to  cross  the  Red  Sea  from  Africa  into  Asia. 

How  much  it  meant  for  them  to  emerge,  crude 
and  untaught  though  they  were,  into  a  realm  of  spir- 
itual ideals!  In  the  slavery  of  Egypt  there  was  no 
vision  and  the  higher  life  of  the  people  perished. 
But  in  the  land  of  promise,  while  it  was  a  long,  slow 
process — first  the  blade,  then  the  ear,  then,  at  a  long 
remove,  the  full  corn  in  the  ear — they  were  brought 
under  the  appeal  of  the  priest  and  the  lawgiver,  of 
the  poet  and  the  prophet !  They  were  brought  under 
the  influence  of  men  of  spiritual  insight,  who  led 
their  minds  on  and  up  to  the  point  where  they  es- 
tablished relationships  with  the  Unseen.  Common- 
place though  their  lives  were,  as  they  wandered  in 
the  desert,  as  they  fought  for  a  footing  in  Canaan, 
and  as  they  developed  their  institutions  in  the  peace- 
ful occupation  of  the  land  the  Lord  their  God  had 
given  them,  there  was  steady  growth  as  they  dis- 
covered the  deeper  significance  of  those  common  in- 
terests, as  they  related  them  to  a  far-reaching  divine 
purpose,  as  they  saw  the  transcendent  possibilities 


CHANGE   IN  THE   SOCIAL  ENVIRONMENT      175 

of  the  lives  they  were  living  through  the  mighty 
leadership  to  which  they  had  become  attached. 

They  were  also  passing  from  a  condition  of 
slavery,  where  the  responsibility  for  their  support 
rested  with  others,  to  a  state  of  freedom,  where  the 
responsibility  would  become  their  own.  They  were 
crossing  from  the  complexity  of  a  civilization  which 
puzzled  and  burdened  them  to  the  simplicity  of  a 
life  with  which  they  were  more  competent  to  deal. 
They  were  forsaking  the  fat  delta  of  the  Nile,  with 
its  leeks  and  onions,  its  melons  and  its  cucumbers, 
for  the  rugged  life  and  scantier  fare  of  the  steppes. 
It  was  indeed  a  night  much  to  be  observed  and  long 
to  be  remembered,  because  of  its  vital  bearing  upon 
the  destiny  of  this  people,  who  were  then  striking 
their  initial  blow  for  industrial  deliverance.  It  is 
only  natural  that  some  of  the  prominent  features  in 
this  notable  experience  should  have  been  enshrined 
and  commemorated  in  the  Jewish  Feast  of  Passover, 
which  has  endured  through  all  the  ages  to  this  very 
hour. 

There  on  the  shore  of  the  Red  Sea,  then,  they 
paused  in  their  flight  and  pitched  their  camp.  But 
as  the  sun  went  down  behind  the  western  sand-hills, 
a  cloud  of  dust  rose  upon  the  horizon,  and  presently 
they  saw  in  the  distance  the  horses  and  chariots  of 
Pharaoh's  army  in  hot  pursuit.  The  loss  of  an 


176    SOCIAL  MESSAGE   OF  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

abundant  supply  of  cheap  labor  had  been  instantly 
felt  by  the  ruling  class;  the  calamities  had  all  passed 
and  the  sky  had  cleared;  and  now  the  army  was  or- 
dered out  to  bring  those  Israelites  back  and  fix  them 
again  in  hard  bondage.  The  dust  of  the  pursuers 
in  their  forced  march  rose  upon  the  horizon  as  the 
sun  went  down,  and  the  Israelites  were  sore  afraid. 

Instantly  there  went  up  a  great  cry  against  Moses, 
and  against  the  whole  undertaking  for  industrial  bet- 
terment. Let  danger  or  difficulty  arise  and  the 
fickle,  faint-hearted  people  will  commonly  cry  out 
against  the  folly  of  all  such  attempts.  "  Were  there, 
not  graves  enough  in  Egypt,"  they  shouted  to  their 
leader,  "  that  thou  hast  brought  us  to  die  by  the 
sword  in  the  wilderness?  "  It  was  a  bitter  taunt — 
"  not  graves  enough  in  Egypt,"  that  land  of  tombs, 
where  interest  in  the  dead  all  but  overshadowed  in- 
terest in  the  living,  even  as  the  Pyramids  of  the  dead 
towered  above  the  homes  of  the  living!  Horrible 
slaughter  for  all  who  did  not  instantly  submit 
seemed  inevitable  as  the  chariots  of  Pharaoh's  army 
swept  toward  them  across  the  sands.  And  for  those 
who  might  survive  there  seemed  no  better  fate  than 
hard  bondage  again,  with  the  tale  of  bricks  once 
more  doubled  as  a  penalty  for  attempted  revolt. 

But  Moses  sought  to  reassure  them  by  his  confi- 
dent promise  of  divine  aid.  They  were  surely  obey- 


CHANGE   IN  THE   SOCIAL  ENVIRONMENT      177 

ing  an  impulse  from  on  high  in  seeking  to  make  the 
conditions  of  their  life  ennobling,  not  degrading. 
They  were  surely  following  a  pillar  of  cloud  and  of 
fire  in  entering  upon  the  quest  of  a  life  worthy  to 
be  called  human.  Had  they  not  a  right  then  to 
expect  the  aid  of  Him  who  encouraged  this  moral 
venture?  Moses  believed  they  had,  and  he  cried  un- 
ceasingly to  the  shuddering  host:  "Fear  not;  stand 
still  and  see  the  salvation  of  God;  the  Lord  shall 
fight  for  you,  and  ye  shall  hold  your  peace." 

Then  above  the  roar  of  the  storm,  for  the  nar- 
rator tells  us  "  a  strong  east  wind  "  blew  all  night 
long,  and  above  the  tumult  of  the  frightened  people, 
there  sounded  the  voice  of  the  Great  Ally:  "  Speak 
to  the  children  of  Israel,  that  they  go  forward."  It 
seemed  like  a  command  to  do  the  impossible.  It 
was  apparently  the  suggestion  of  an  unattainable 
ideal.  Here  they  were  hemmed  in  on  every  side; 
on  the  right  hand  and  the  left  there  stretched  the 
sand-hills  of  the  desert  where  flight  would  have  been 
useless;  behind  them  came  the  horses  and  chariots 
of  Pharaoh's  army,  driving  furiously,  and  before 
them  lay  the  arm  of  the  Red  Sea.  Yet  the  divine 
command  was :  "  Speak  to  the  children  of  Israel, 
that  they  go  forward,"  apparently  mocking  the  peril 
and  difficulty  of  their  situation! 

Futile  as  it  seemed,  however,  at  the  call  of  their 


178    SOCIAL  MESSAGE   OF  THE  MODERN   PULPIT 

leader  they  broke  camp;  the  line  of  march  was 
formed,  the  leaders  were  faced  toward  the  sea,  and 
the  word  was  "Forward!"  Then  the  strong  east 
wind  blew  back  the  waters  of  that  arm  of  the  sea 
until  it  was  shallow  enough  for  them  to  cross.  Into 
the  bed  of  the  sea  they  marched,  and  there,  amid 
the  roar  of  the  wind  and  the  flying  foam — for,  as 
Paul  tells  us,  "  they  were  all  baptized  unto  Moses 
in  the  cloud  and  in  the  sea  " — they  went  steadily 
forward  by  the  divine  command ! 

Before  daybreak  the  Israelites  were  all  safely 
across,  but  the  Egyptians  had  come  up  during  the 
night-watch,  driving  wearily  and  heavily  across  the 
wet  sea-floor,  their  heavy  chariot  wheels  clogged 
with  the  mud.  And  then  suddenly  the  fierce  wind 
veered  about  and  the  waters,  scurrying  before  the 
blast,  returned  to  their  place,  and  the  whole  detach- 
ment of  Pharaoh's  army  was  drowned  in  the  sea 
before  it  could  escape. 

It  is  a  splendid  poetic  treatment  of  this  incident 
which  our  author  gives  us.  The  strong  east  wind 
is  God's  chosen  instrument,  even  as  all  the  natural 
agencies  are  in  Hebrew  thought  the  servants  of  the 
divine  will.  "  The  winds  and  the  waves,  are  they 
not  all  ministering  spirits,  sent  forth  to  minister  to 
the  heirs  of  salvation? "  The  hailstones  beating  in 
the  faces  of  the  enemy,  making  possible  for  the 


CHANGE   IN  THE  SOCIAL  ENVIRONMENT      179 

Hebrews  that  victory  over  his  army,  are  tangible 
evidence  that  "  the  stars  in  their  courses  fight  against 
Sisera."  "  Your  Heavenly  Father  feeds  the  ravens 
and  clothes  the  lilies/'  said  Jesus,  yet  it  is  all  done 
through  the  abiding  natural  order,  with  never  a  hint 
of  any  miracle  wrought  on  behalf  of  bird  or  flower. 
It  was  the  Hebrew  habit  of  mind  to  see  the  hand 
and  purpose  of  the  God  of  their  Fathers  in  all  these 
natural  phenomena.  So  here  the  strong  east  wind, 
which  caused  the  waters  to  go  back,  making  a  path- 
way for  the  fleeing  Israelites,  and  the  subsequent 
shifting  of  the  wind  causing  the  waters  to  return 
and  engulf  the  pursuing  Egyptians,  was  to  the  narra- 
tor a  direct  manifestation  of  the  divine  interven- 
tion on  behalf  of  the  people  He  had  undertaken  to 
deliver. 

And  when  those  ancient  Israelites  thus  witnessed 
the  overthrow  of  their  late  oppressors,  they  stood 
upon  the  shore  and  sang  to  Him  their  song  of 
triumph : 

The  Lord  is  a  man  of  war,  Jehovah  is  His  name! 

Pharaoh's  chariots  and  his  hosts  hath  He  cast  into  the  seaj 

The  depths  have  covered  them; 

They  sank  to  the  bottom  as  a  stone. 

Thou  didst  blow  with  thy  wind,  the  sea  covered  them. 

Thy  right  hand  is  become  glorious  in  power. 

The  Lord  shall  reign  for  ever  and  ever. 


180    SOCIAL  MESSAGE   OF  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

The  Israelites  were  now  on  the  road  to  industrial 
freedom;  they  were  in  the  actual  enjoyment  of  an 
opportunity  to  learn  new  lessons  through  the  sense 
of  responsibility.  They  were  destined  in  the  future 
to  make  sad  blunders  and  to  sin  against  the  divine 
purpose,  to  fare  scantily  at  times  and  to  suffer  pain; 
but  in  it  all  and  through  it  all  they  would  neverthe- 
less learn  and  grow.  The  possession  of  freedom, 
with  all  the  serious  obligations  it  brought  with  it, 
would  in  time  become  their  salvation. 

The  claim  has  been  made  repeatedly,  and  no  doubt 
with  some  truth,  that  the  colored  race  in  our  own 
Southern  States  was  better  fed,  better  clothed,  better 
housed,  and  had  on  the  whole  a  happier  and  more 
contented  existence  under  slavery  than  it  has  had 
during  the  first  forty  years  of  its  freedom.  The 
master  who  said  to  an  aspiring  slave  who  was  clamor- 
ing for  his  liberty,  "  You  niggers  have  an  easier 
time  than  I  do,"  was  well  within  the  facts.  And 
so  was  the  ambitious  slave  who  instantly  retorted, 
"  Yes,  sah,  and  so  does  yo'  hogs."  The  negro  by  his 
effective  retort  really  anticipated  the  classical  state- 
ment of  John  Stuart  Mill :  "  It  is  better  to  be  a  dissat- 
isfied man  than  a  satisfied  pig."  Liberty  has  meant 
uncertainty,  anxiety,  obligation,  which  the  colored 
people  have  not  always  known  how  to  bear;  but 
liberty  has  meant  also  a  real  education  through  the 


CHANGE   IN  THE   SOCIAL  ENVIRONMENT      181 

responsibility  of  self-control,  and  this  has  been  worth 
all  the  pain  it  brought. 

Wage-earners  through  their  unions  are  insisting 
to-day  upon  a  larger  measure  of  liberty  for  them- 
selves: they  are  urging  their  right  to  be  heard  in 
the  determination  of  matters  which  were  once  left 
entirely  to  the  decision  of  their  employers.  They  are 
insisting  on  a  more  democratic  spirit  in  the  manage- 
ment of  business,  as  to  the  wage-scale,  the  hours 
of  labor,  the  conditions  of  employment,  and  the 
mode  of  payment.  They  suffer  sometimes  in  these 
ventures;  they  make  blunders  and  sin  against  eco- 
nomic and  moral  law  in  their  initial  efforts.  But  it 
is  altogether  right  and  best  that  they  should  be  mak- 
ing the  efforts — it  will  mean  the  coming  at  last  of  a 
much  higher  type  of  wage-earner.  The  effort  for 
social  betterment  and  the  decision  as  to  the  various 
steps  to  be  taken  can  never  be  made  for  the  toilers 
by  those  who  esteem  themselves  more  competent — 
they  must  be  made  by  the  toilers  themselves,  to  the 
end  that  the  desired  adequacy  to  the  demands  which 
improved  conditions  will  inevitably  bring  may  be 
gained  through  this  responsible  experience.  All  this 
Moses,  the  leader  of  this  ancient  movement,  well 
knew,  and  he  matriculated  these  untaught  disciples 
of  a  better  order  in  the  school  of  responsible  ex- 
perience that  night  when  he  led  them  out  of  Egypt 


182    SOCIAL  MESSAGE   OF  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

into  the  uncertain  life  of  freedom  in  the  peninsula 
of  Sinai. 

The  whole  event  is  so  striking  in  its  symbolism 
that  the  poet,  the  prophet,  and  the  composer  have  in 
turn  carried  its  details  over  and  made  them  to  rep- 
resent crises  in  the  spiritual  life  of  the  race.  Here 
and  there  in  the  unfolding  moral  history  of  the 
world  the  souls  of  men  have  fled  from  conditions 
which  seemed  intolerable,  only  to  find  themselves 
confronted  by  still  harder  necessities.  And  when 
they  seemed  utterly  shut  in  and  driven  to  the  point 
where  there  was  no  escape,  their  very  helplessness 
and  desperation  led  them  to  look  up  with  new  faith. 
Then  somehow  a  way  was  opened  for  them  in  the 
midst  of  the  deep.  Up  out  of  such  situations  of  sor- 
row and  adversity  have  come  many  of  the  best  lives 
the  world  has  ever  known.  Whole  classes  of  people 
and  entire  nations  have,  in  similar  fashion,  found 
themselves  impeded  in  their  true  progress  by  obsta- 
cles apparently  insurmountable,  but  thrown  back 
upon  their  faith  in  God,  by  the  very  stress  of  a 
desperate  situation,  they  have,  under  His  wise  guid- 
ance, discovered  unexpected  lines  of  advance. 

We  are  at  this  very  moment,  in  the  social  prob- 
lems which  confront  us,  hemmed  in  by  obstacles 
which  seem  all  but  insurmountable;  we  have  ahead 
of  us  a  Red  Sea  standing  in  the  way  of  an  advance 


CHANGE   IN  THE   SOCIAL  ENVIRONMENT      183 

toward  that  social  amelioration  pictured  to  us  by 
the  prophets  of  the  hour.  It  is  deep,  wide,  and 
bank-full  of  problems  and  difficulties.  It  will  re- 
quire more  than  an  all-night  east  wind  to  make  a 
way  through  it.  On  the  right  hand  there  is  the 
greed  of  many  employers  who  want  a  lion's  share 
of  the  general  product,  that  they  may  live  in  a  use- 
less and  oftentimes  hurtful  luxury.  On  the  left 
hand  there  is  the  greed  of  many  misguided  wage- 
earners  who  clamor  for  more  than  is  consistent  with 
a  successful  continuance  of  the  business.  And  driv- 
ing furiously  from  behind,  there  are  the  horses  and 
chariots  of  a  bargain-hunting  public,  wishing  to  buy 
goods  in  abundance  at  prices  lower  than  they  can 
be  produced  for  under  wholesome  and  equitable  con- 
ditions ! 

Under  all  this  combined  pressure  our  poor  indus- 
trial life  seems  driven  at  times  to  the  point  where 
there  is  no  escape.  The  longed-for  deliverance  can- 
not be  secured  in  a  single  night  by  some  one  resolute 
and  fortunate  movement — it  can  only  come  by  years 
of  patient  and  far-seeing  effort,  as  serious,  aspiring 
people  shall  follow  where  the  pillar  of  cloud  and  of 
fire  points  the  way.  But  a  race  of  men  who  had 
brains  enough  and  energy  enough  to  develop  here 
in  these  United  States  an  industrial  organization  un- 
matched for  rapid,  effective  production,  unequalled 


184    SOCIAL  MESSAGE   OF  THE  MODERN   PULPIT 

thus  far  for  the  swift  increase  of  the  total  wealth, 
surely  can,  if  it  will,  accomplish  still  more.  Men 
can  use  that  same  degree  of  energy  and  intelligence, 
together  with  a  larger  share  of  conscience,  now  made 
sensitive  by  the  new  sense  of  social  responsibility,  in 
the  gradual  development  of  an  industrial  organiza- 
tion in  whose  great  rewards  the  poor  and  the  help- 
less as  well  as  the  strong  and  the  fortunate  shall 
more  equitably  share.  And  to  them  at  this  hour  the 
divine  voice  is  speaking  out  of  the  darkness  and  the 
cloud,  saying:  "  Speak  to  the  children  of  America, 
that  they  go  forward  into  a  more  justly  administered, 
economic  life." 


CHAPTER   VI 

THE    TRAINING   IN    INDUSTRIAL    FREEDOM 

WHEN  the  Israelites  crossed  the  Red  Sea,  leaving 
behind  them,  the  fertile  fields  of  the  Nile  delta,  there 
stretched  before  them  at  once  "  the  great  and  ter- 
rible wilderness."  Instantly  the  food  problem  arose, 
and  it  necessarily  became  in  the  minds  of  the  peo- 
ple of  primary  importance.  The  keen,  dry  air 
of  the  steppes  and  the  long  marches  which  their 
leader  deemed  expedient  until  they  had  left  Egypt 
farther  behind  quickened  their  appetites  until  the 
visible  food  supply  seemed  altogether  inadequate  for 
the  needs  of  such  a  multitude;  and  presently  there 
was  a  great  outcry  against  an  expedition  so  hazard- 
ous, apparently,  by  reason  of  the  slender  resources 
of  its  commissary  department.  "  Would  God  we  had 
died  by  the  hand  of  the  Lord  among  the  flesh-pots 
of  Egypt,"  they  cried  to  their  leader.  "  You  have 
brought  us  forth  into  the  wilderness  to  kill  us  all 
with  hunger."  And  thus  the  bread-and  butter  prob- 
lem, which  is  always  to  the  fore  in  any  labor  move- 
ment, became  at  once  a  matter  of  vital  concern. 

185 


186    SOCIAL  MESSAGE   OF  THE  MODERN   PULPIT 

At  this  juncture  they  began  to  eat  a  certain  sub- 
stance called  "  manna."  We  are  told  that  it  fell 
during  the  night  with  the  dew,  or  gathered  in  tiny 
deposits  like  hoar  frost  on  the  shrubs  of  the  desert. 
The  people  gathered  it  eagerly;  they  ground  it  in 
their  rude  mills  and  beat  it  in  their  mortars,  making 
a  coarse  sort  of  cake.  The  Bedouins  of  to-day  in 
that  country  make  use  of  a  food  which  they  call 
"  Mann  es  Sama,"  gathering  it  from  the  shrubs  of 
that  wild  region,  which  may  possibly  sustain  some 
relation  to  the  food  supply  of  those  ancient  Israel- 
ites. It  is  altogether  unwise  for  any  one  to  attempt 
to  dogmatize  upon  these  points,  because  it  is  not 
always  easy  to  draw  a  hard-and-fast  line  between 
the  prose  and  the  poetry  in  some  of  these  earlier 
narratives. 

This  manna  was  not  their  only  source  of  suste- 
nance. We  read  also  of  their  killing  quails  in  great 
numbers;  of  their  killing  the  cattle  they  had  brought 
with  them  and  boiling  the  flesh — when  they  set  out 
from  Egypt,  "  a  mixed  multitude  went  up  also  with 
them,  and  flocks  and  herds,  even  very  much  cattle." 
We  are  told  of  a  bread  made  from  wheat  and  barley 
which  was  obtained  from  the  people  of  Seir;  and 
of  "  cakes  made  from  flour  with  oil."  The  rugged 
people  of  that  region  commonly  subsist  on  the  most 
meagre  fare;  and  that  the  Israelites  were  not  by 


TRAINING  IN  INDUSTRIAL  FREEDOM         187 

any  means  well  fed  is  evidenced  by  their  murmuring 
desire  to  abandon  the  food  supply  derived  from  the 
manna  and  other  sources  and  return  to  "  the  leeks 
and  onions,  the  melons  and  cucumbers,  in  the  land 
of  Egypt,"  even  though  such  a  course  would  in- 
volve also  a  return  to  slavery.  By  these  various 
means,  however,  they  were  kept  alive  during  the 
hard  period  of  their  training. 

The  account  of  the  administration  of  this  food 
supply  indicates  that  it  was  distributed  among  the 
people  in  an  exceedingly  democratic  way.  "  They 
gathered  each  man  according  to  his  eating,"  the 
narrator  says.  Everybody  worked;  there  was  no 
leisure  class,  living  idly  and  uselessly  upon  the  labor 
of  others.  There  was  no  unfair  monopoly  of  the 
gifts  of  God's  bounty  by  the  strong  to  the  detri- 
ment of  the  weak.  They  gathered  each  man  ac- 
cording to  his  eating,  each  one  consuming  according 
to  the  actual  service  rendered,  and  not,  as  is  often 
the  case,  those  who  consume  the  most  doing,  per- 
haps, the  least  in  the  work  of  actual  production. 
The  very  principle  upon  which  distribution  was 
made,  as  stated  by  the  narrator,  sounds  the  note  of 
an  equitably  organized  industrial  system — it  is  not 
entirely  unlike  the  well-known  motto  of  some  of  the 
modern  socialists,  "  From  each  according  to  his 
powers,  to  each  according  to  his  needs." 


188    SOCIAL  MESSAGE  OF  THE  MODERN  PULPIT 

The  economic  principle  which  entered  into  the 
administration  of  this  ancient  food  supply  has  a 
legitimate  bearing  upon  the  present  problem  of  dis- 
tribution. Manna  is  not  the  only  commodity  which 
a  benevolent  Creator  has  given  to  the  world  to  be 
administered  on  the  general  principle  that  "  each 
man  shall  gather  according  to  his  eating."  It  is 
surely  the  divine  intention  that  the  land  and  the 
mines,  the  forests  and  the  water-power,  shall  all  be 
administered,  not  in  the  interest  of  the  privileged 
few,  but  for  the  good  of  the  producing  many.  Hon- 
est men  may  differ  in  judgment  as  to  the  best  method 
for  securing  the  realization  of  this  high  ideal,  but 
the  ideal  itself  seems  imperative.  The  main  justi- 
fication for  the  private  ownership  of  land  lies  in  the 
necessity  which  exists  for  the  application  of  indi- 
vidual labor  to  the  land  before  it  can  possess  any 
utility.  In  order  to  secure  this  persistent  applica- 
tion of  individual  effort,  it  is  necessary  to  have  some 
system  which  will  insure  that  desired  result;  and 
the  main  impression  to  be  gained  from  human  ex- 
perience thus  far  is  that  private  ownership  of  land 
is  more  fruitful  in  inducing  the  necessary  individual 
effort  than  any  other  method  thus  far  discovered  of 
holding  the  soil. 

But  although  this  economic  method  may  stand  as 
the  best  means  we  have  found  thus  far  of  attaining 


TRAINING  IN   INDUSTRIAL   FREEDOM         189 

the  end  named,  the  privilege  of  private  ownership 
ought  to  be  so  held  within  the  firm  grip  of  certain 
ethical  principles  as  to  make  it  socially  helpful  and 
not  socially  hurtful.  When  forceful  and  far-seeing 
individuals,  or,  still  more  forceful  and  far-seeing  cor- 
porations, extend  their  holdings  in  such  a  way  as  to 
create  an  unnatural  and  injurious  monopoly  of  these 
common  resources,  then  the  moral  justification  of 
that  form  of  private  ownership  is  destroyed  and  the 
fact  stands  plain  that  the  bounty  of  the  Creator  is 
being  used  selfishly  and  wickedly.  It  is  one  of  the 
heavy  tasks  resting  to-day  upon  the  awakened  social 
conscience  and  the  more  thorough  understanding  of 
economic  science,  acting  together,  to  discover  some 
better  methods  of  administering  these  great  values 
created  and  intended  for  the  general  good. 

When  we  set  the  present  organization  of  society 
and  the  current  methods  of  distribution  in  the 
searching  presence  of  the  commanding  ideals  held 
before  us  in  the  teaching  of  Christ,  we  are  sore 
amazed  over  our  failure  to  fulfil  the  divine  pur- 
pose. We  may  well  "  tremble  when  we  remember 
that  God  is  just,"  in  the  face  of  all  the  glaring  in- 
equalities of  condition  among  us,  in  the  presence  of 
the  selfish  monopolies  bearing  heavily  upon  the  bur- 
dened and  helpless  poor.  One  multi-millionaire  in 
New  York  has  had  so  much  to  eat  for  decades  past 


190    SOCIAL  MESSAGE  OF  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

that  he  suffers  continually  from  chronic  indigestion 
and  has,  it  is  currently  reported,  a  standing  offer 
of  one  hundred  thousand  dollars  to  any  physician 
who  will  give  him  once  more  a  sound  stomach. 
While  at  the  same  hour  the  charity  boards  inform 
us  that  in  London  alone  there  are  eight  hundred 
thousand  people  who  never  have  enough  to  eat;  that 
many  of  them,  in  order  to  check  the  cravings  of 
hunger,  go  along  the  streets  picking  up  the  plum- 
and  peach-stones  which  are  dropped,  that  they  may 
crack  them  and  eat  the  pits;  that  they  go  also  to  the 
garbage-barrels  and  sort  out  that  which  is  not  too 
nauseating  for  them  to  be  able  to  swallow  in  order 
to  satisfy  the  gnawing  hunger  within. 

Are  we  not  forced  to  the  conclusion  that  we  have 
blundered  and  sinned,  if  those  two  glaring  contrasts 
— the  many  over-fed  millionaires  suffering  from 
chronic  indigestion,  weakened  by  their  own  luxury, 
the  wholesome  development  of  their  children  im- 
perilled by  the  very  abundance  of  material  goods, 
on  one  side,  and  on  the  other  the  half  a  million  poor 
people  in  a  single  city  pouncing  upon  refuse  and 
garbage  to  ward  off  starvation — are  still  so  much  in 
evidence?  Has  not  our  twentieth-century  adminis- 
tration of  the  heavenly  manna  of  God's  bounty  been 
unjust?  We  shall  never  have  either  industrial  or 
spiritual  peace,  I  am  sure,  until  the  relations  of  men 


TRAINING   IN   INDUSTRIAL  FREEDOM         191 

are  such  that  these  contrasts  in  condition  cease  to 
be  so  inordinately  cruel;  until  all  the  able-bodied 
people  shall  perform  some  useful  labor  —  shall 
"  gather  according  to  their  eating,"  thus  rendering 
some  genuine  service  to  society  proportioned  to  the 
share  of  goods  which  they  appropriate  for  their  per- 
sonal enjoyment — instead  of  living,  as  many  of  them 
now  do,  upon  the  labor  of  others;  until  all  the  in- 
dustrious children  of  men  shall  have  more  direct 
access  to  these  common  resources,  to  the  end  that 
they,  too,  may  have  the  chance  at  least  to  gather 
each  one  according  to  his  eating! 

Absolute  equality  in  outward  condition  is  prob- 
ably impossible  so  long  as  it  pleases  the  Creator  to 
divide  ability  so  unequally,  giving  to  one  man  ten 
talents,  to  another  five,  to  another  one;  nor  am  I 
at  all  sure  that  absolute  equality  is  desirable.  "  The 
effort  of  Jesus,"  as  some  one  said  recently,  "  was 
not  to  level  down  outward  conditions,  so  much  as 
to  level  up  social  ideals."  But  a  more  equitable  dis- 
tribution of  the  comforts  of  life  and  a  more  right- 
eous administration  of  the  common  resources  are 
plainly  imperative  if  we  are  ever  to  stand  right 
before  Him  who  is  no  respecter  of  persons.  And 
this  can  only  be  achieved  through  a  more  resolute 
and  thorough-going  application  of  intelligence  and 
conscience  to  this  vexed  problem. 


192    SOCIAL  MESSAGE   OF  THE  MODERN   PULPIT 

The  strength  of  our  best  life  must  learn  to  say 
regarding  the  manifold  resources  now  being  so 
largely  exploited  for  private  gain,  "  This  is  the 
bread  which  the  Lord  our  God  has  given  us  to  eat." 
We  must  learn  so  to  gather  it  and  so  to  distribute 
it  that  those  who  by  their  strength  gather  much 
shall  have  nothing  to  waste  in  useless  luxury,  and 
those  who  in  their  weakness  gather  little  shall  have 
no  lack.  And  in  this  noble  endeavor  we  shall  be 
instructed,  I  am  confident,  by  turning  ever  and  anon 
to  these  well-worn  pages,  and  reading  again  the  story 
of  those  ancient  Israelites  who,  in  the  enjoyment 
of  their  manna,  gained  a  new  sense  of  their  de- 
pendence upon  God,  and  who,  in  their  method  of 
administering  it,  developed  a  new  spirit  of  genuine 
consideration  for  the  needs  of  all  their  fellows.  The 
social  renewal  of  any  people  is  a  long,  slow  process, 
and  the  years  spent  in  gathering  and  eating  the 
bread  of  the  desert,  even  though  the  fare  was  some- 
times meagre  and  the  conditions  of  life  severe, 
served  to  train  them  in  a  spirit  profoundly  useful 
for  the  days  when  they  should  enter  perchance  upon 
the  possession  of  a  richer  abundance. 

But  there  came  a  still  more  instructive  and  use- 
ful experience  when  the  children  of  Israel  ap- 
proached the  foot  of  Mount  Sinai.  They  had  gained 
their  liberty  and  were  breathing  the  free  air  of  the 


TRAINING  IN   INDUSTRIAL   FREEDOM         193 

steppes,  their  daily  bread  was  within  reach,  by  the 
gracious  providence  of  God,  but  they  had  still  to 
learn  that  neither  men  nor  movements  live  by  bread 
alone — they  must  live  by  every  word  which  pro- 
ceedeth  out  of  the  mouth  of  God.  They  must  live  by 
the  sense  of  personal  obligation  and  by  the  mainte- 
nance of  spiritual  fellowship  with  the  Unseen;  they 
must  live  by  all  the  words  of  promise  and  command 
which  issue  from  the  mouth  of  the  Most  High! 
These  ancient  Israelites  were  there  brought  to  real- 
ize that  they  must  live  by  those  great  words  which 
were  thundered  forth  from  the  top  of  Sinai,  touch- 
ing the  sacredness  of  life  and  purity,  of  truth  and 
property,  of  family  ties  and  religious  obligations! 
Every  movement  for  human  betterment,  if  it  is  to 
result  in  any  real  and  permanent  advance,  must 
come  to  the  place  where  it  feels  the  undisputed 
reign  of  law  and  the  strong  grip  of  moral  obli- 
gation. It  was  imperative,  therefore,  that  these 
children  of  Israel  should  in  the  early  stages  of 
their  social  undertaking  bring  their  labor  move- 
ment and  pitch  its  camp  beneath  the  shadow  of 
Sinai. 

The  natural  features  of  the  region  all  tended  to 
increase  the  religious  suggestiveness  of  the  situation 
in  which  they  found  themselves.  Up  out  of  a  bare, 
rugged  plain  rose  this  mount  of  God  like  a  huge, 


SOCIAL  MESSAGE   OF  THE   MODERN    PULPIT 

natural  altar.  Black  clouds  were  seen  to  rest  upon 
its  top,  as  if  some  heavenly  visitant  had  come  down, 
veiling  His  glory  in  the  thick  darkness.  Those  Is- 
raelites who  had  lived  all  their  lives  in  the  flat  delta 
of  the  !N^ile  were  profoundly  impressed  by  the  very 
sight  of  such  a  mountain  \  They  instinctively  hegan 
to  lift  up  their  eyes  unto  the  hills  from  whence 
should  come  help! 

It  is  also  a  region  of  terrific  storms — the  wind 
roars  through  the  rocks  like  the  blast  of  a  trumpet; 
the  fierce  glare  of  the  lightning  and  the  crash  of 
thunder  give  the  impression  of  supernatural  power. 
All  these  phenomena  are  frankly  interpreted  in  the 
narrative  as  evidence  of  the  presence  and  power  of 
the  deity,  who  had  taken  those  untutored  Israelites 
in  charge.  The  roar  of  the  wind  was  the  loud  blast 
of  His  trumpet,  summoning  them  before  Him;  the 
fierce  glare  of  the  lightning  was  a  momentary 
glimpse  of  that  divine  glory  which  no  man  could 
see  and  live;  the  peal  of  the  thunder  was  as  the 
sound  of  a  divine  voice  calling  upon  the  people  for 
obedience.  We  can  readily  understand  how  all  these 
phenomena  might  naturally  fill  the  hearts  of  unin- 
structed  slaves,  hitherto  unaccustomed  to  either 
mountains  or  storms,  with  a  profound  sense  of  mys- 
tery and  awe ! 

The  narrative  states  clearly  that  it  did  make  a 


TRAINING   IN   INDUSTRIAL   FREEDOM         195 

deep  impression  upon  their  primitive  minds.  Moses 
had  told  them  in  Egypt  that  Yahweh,  the  God  of 
their  ancestors — Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob — had 
appeared  to  him  at  the  foot  of  this  mountain,  de- 
claring His  interest  in  the  oppressed  children  of  Is- 
rael, and  announcing  His  purpose  to  deliver  them. 
This  same  Yahweh  had  sent  a  message  by  the  hand 
of  Moses  to  Pharaoh  demanding  their  release.  When 
the  monarch  refused,  Yahweh  had  smitten  all  his 
borders  with  plague  and  pestilence.  This  Yahweh 
had  then  brought  the  Israelites  safely  through  the 
Red  Sea;  He  had  fed  them  with  manna  on  the  way; 
and  now  they  were  actually  encamped  at  the  foot  of 
Sinai,  which  was  to  them  as  His  earthly  residence. 
They  were  ready  and  expectant,  therefore,  awaiting 
further  instruction  at  His  hands. 

On  a  certain  day  the  eyes  of  all  the  waiting  peo- 
ple were  fixed  upon  the  top  of  the  sacred  mount. 
"Would  Yahweh,  their  God,  appear  to  them,  they 
wondered,  in  any  visible  form?  Would  He  stand 
before  them  as  a  winged  figure,  like  the  gods  of  the 
Assyrians,  or  as  a  huge  bull,  like  the  gods  of  Egypt? 
The  awful  storm  was  at  its  height,  for  "  it  came  to 
pass,"  the  narrator  says,  "  on  the  third  day  there 
was  a  thick  cloud  upon  the  top  of  the  mount,  and 
there  were  lightnings  and  thunder  and  the  sound  of 
a  trumpet."  All  these  phenomena  were  to  their  un- 


tutored  minds  direct  manifestations  of  the  Presence 
of  the  mysterious  and  powerful  Being  who  was  there 
to  reyeal  Himself  to  them  from  the  top  of  the  mount. 
The  minds  of  all  the  multitude  were  keenly  alive, 
eagerly  anticipating  the  appearance  of  some  celestial 
being. 

But  when  Moses,  their  representative,  had  gone 
to  the  top  of  the  mount  to  meet  this  deity,  and  had 
returned,  neither  he  nor  they  had  seen  any  shape  or 
form.  Moses  came  back  simply  bearing  in  his  hands 
the  elements  of  the  moral  law.  He  assured  them 
that  the  God  of  their  fathers  revealed  Himself  to 
men  most  of  all  in  those  ideas  and  principles  which 
have  to  do  with  right  conduct;  that  He  spoke  to 
them  in  commandments  regarding  the  divine  insist- 
ence upon  the  sacredness  of  life  and  purity,  of  truth 
and  property,  of  family  ties  and  religious  obligations 
— and  this  is  what  the  people  there  saw  as  divine 
when  they  encamped  before  Sinai!  Down  through 
all  the  years  of  their  growth  this  continued  to  be 
the  main  element  in  their  thought  of  God — He  was 
a  God  of  righteousness,  to  whom  it  were  vain  and 
irreverent  to  attempt  to  assign  any  definite  form; 
He  was  a  God  who  was  to  be  honored  chiefly  by  lov- 
ing obedience  to  His  moral  commands.  And  in  that 
far-distant  time  when  the  holy  ark  of  the  covenant 
was  opened,  "  there  was  nothing  therein,"  we  read 


TRAINING  IN   INDUSTRIAL   FREEDOM         197 

— no  image,  no  sacred  utensils,  no  tools  of  magic — 
"  nothing  save  the  two  tables  of  the  law,  which 
Moses  placed  therein  at  Horeb!  " 

There  are  three  accounts  of  those  ten  command- 
ments given  in  the  Scriptures — one  in  the  thirty- 
fourth  chapter  of  Exodus,  one  in  the  twentieth 
chapter  of  Exodus,  and  one  in  the  fifth  chapter  of 
Deuteronomy.  It  is  probable  that  the  lower  and 
cruder  form,  as  contained  in  the  thirty-fourth  chapter 
of  Exodus,  came  first,  and  that  the  nobler  form  of 
these  precepts  came  later,  through  the  moral  growth 
of  the  people  and  the  fuller  disclosure  which  God 
made  of  Himself  as  their  spiritual  vision  cleared. 
But  the  foundations  at  least  of  this  divine  law  were 
laid  in  those  early  days,  and  it  is  interesting  to  see 
now  to  what  useful  expression  they  have  finally 
come  in  the  ordinarily  accepted  "  Ten  Command- 
ments." 

The  great  background  of  the  whole  code  lay  in  the 
fact  that  the  God  of  the  Hebrews  was  one  God — 
He  had  no  divine  associates,  no  relatives.  There 
never  was  a  Hebrew  goddess;  and  this  fact  alone 
saved  their  religion  from  a  world  of  unwholesome 
theory  and  practice  into  which  other  early  religions 
so  readily  fell.  God  is  one — "  I  AM,  hath  sent  me 
unto  you."  "  I  am  the  Lord  thy  God  that  brought 
thee  up  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt,  out  of  the  house 


198    SOCIAL   MESSAGE   OF  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

of  bondage.  Thou  shalt  have  no  other  gods  be- 
fore me!  " 

Then,  guarding  the  sacredness  of  that  faith  in  one 
God,  at  a  time  when  religion  so  easily  became  mean 
and  vile,  this  ancient  code  declared  that  idolatry  is 
wrong — "  Thou  shalt  not  make  any  graven  image  " ; 
irreverence  is  wrong — "  Thou  shalt  not  take  the 
name  of  the  Lord  thy  God  in  vain  " ;  religious  indif- 
ference is  wrong — "  Remember  the  Sabbath  day  to 
keep  it  holy."  This  constantly  recurring  holy  day 
would  tend  to  keep  alive  in  the  hearts  of  the  people 
a  sense  of  the  legitimate  claim  which  Jehovah  their 
God  had  upon  them.  Thus  these  first  command- 
ments carefully  guarded  the  sacredness  of  that 
faith  in  one  God,  by  their  stern  prohibition  of  those 
sins  which  would  most  readily  weaken  or  destroy  it. 

Then  straight  on  into  the  fundamental  human  re- 
lations these  commandments  went.  Family  ties  are 
sacred — "  Honor  thy  father  and  thy  mother."  Hu- 
man life  is  sacred — "  Thou  shalt  not  kill."  Purity 
between  the  sexes  is  sacred — "  Thou  shalt  not  com- 
mit adultery."  Property  is  sacred — "  Thou  shalt 
not  steal."  Truth  is  sacred — "  Thou  shalt  not  bear 
false  witness."  All  the  interests  of  others  are  sacred 
— "  Thou  shalt  not  covet  anything  that  is  thy  neigh- 
bor's." Simple  and  elementary  these  injunctions 
are,  but  at  a  time  when  other  religions,  with  their 


TRAINING  IN   INDUSTRIAL   FREEDOM         199 

gods  many  and  their  lords  many,  with  their  un- 
wholesome traditions  about  wayward  goddesses  and 
their  utterly  debasing  stories  of  celestial  escapades, 
were  full  of  untruth  and  uncleanness ;  at  a  time  when 
disregard  for  life  and  purity,  for  truth  and  prop- 
erty, made  moral  progress  difficult,  these  early  com- 
mandments shine  with  a  wondrous  splendor!  They 
stand,  indeed,  as  the  genuine  expression  of  a  moral 
order,  august,  cosmic,  eternal,  under  whose  benefi- 
cent rule  all  men  and  all  movements  must  at  last 
be  brought  if  they  are  ever  to  reach  the  land  of 
promise. 

When  we  turn  to  the  industrial  agitation  in  mod- 
ern times  we  find  a  growing  tendency  to  recognize 
this  plain  truth.  John  Mitchell,  in  the  great  coal 
strike  of  1902,  used  to  say  constantly  to  the  miners 
of  Pennsylvania,  by  spoken  address  and  through  the 
columns  of  the  press,  "  Refrain  from  law-breaking ! 
If  you  want  to  spoil  your  own  cause*  and  lose  every 
sacrifice  you  have  made  for  yourselves  and  your 
families,  give  way  to  your  temper  and  commit  some 
violence.  Lawlessness  and  violence  will  alienate 
public  sympathy  and  lose  our  cause,  as  indeed  they 
ought."  And  he  has  said  the  same  thing,  over  and 
over,  in  his  book  on  "  Organized  Labor,"  which 
every  minister  of  the  Gospel  ought  to  read.  And 
what  is  all  this  but  simply  a  far-off  echo  of  what 


200    SOCIAL  MESSAGE   OF  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

God  said  in  that  ancient  labor  movement  three  thou- 
sand years  ago — "  Thou  shalt  not  kill,  nor  steal,  nor 
in  any  wise  destroy!  " 

It  is  manifestly  wrong  for  union  men  to  break  the 
wrists  of  other  men  or  to  resort  to  any  sort  of  vio- 
lence to  prevent  their  working  during  a  strike.  It 
is  also  manifestly  wrong  for  men  to  attempt  to  break 
down  by  unfair  methods  the  human  standard  of  liv- 
ing, which  is  more  precious  even  than  wrists.  It 
matters  not  whether  the  wrong  to  another's  life  is 
done  in  a  moment  of  violence,  or  done  slowly  by 
measures  which  mean  the  degradation  of  the  essen- 
tial elements  of  human  life — "  Thou  shalt  not  in 
any  wise  kill,  nor  steal,  nor  destroy !  "  In  every 
labor  union  and  in  every  employers'  association,  in 
all  the  agitation  of  the  hour  and  in  all  the  plans 
for  industrial  betterment,  Mount  Sinai  must  forever 
stand  before  the  eyes  of  men  with  its  solemn  warn- 
ings and  august  sanctions,  with  its  imperative  "  Thou 
shalt"  and  "  Thou  shalt  not!  " 

I  emphasize  this  point  because  in  much  of  the  in- 
dustrial agitation  there  is  a  disposition  to  ignore 
those  chains  which  ignorance  and  incapacity,  idle- 
ness and  intemperance,  fasten  upon  the  wrists  of 
great  numbers  of  unhappy  men.  Emancipation  for 
such  individuals  cannot  be  accomplished  by  change 
in  the  industrial  organization  unaided  by  this  new 


TRAINING  IN   INDUSTRIAL   FREEDOM         201 

sense  of  relationship  to  that  moral  order  which 
Mount  Sinai  symbolized.  I  emphasize  it  also  be- 
cause there  is  a  tendency  on  the  part  of  the  well- 
to-do  to  forget  the  sacredness  which  should  attach 
to  life  and  purity,  to  truth  and  property,  to  home 
ties  and  religious  obligations  among  those  humble 
toilers  whose  personal  and  family  interests  are  to- 
day so  largely  at  the  mercy  of  those  who  employ 
them. 

The  memory  of  those  days  at  Sinai  never  alto- 
gether faded  out  of  the  minds  of  these  ancient  He- 
brews. They  made  their  blunders,  they  were  guilty 
of  wrong-doing,  for  they  were  men  and  not  angels; 
but  through  all  the  succeeding  years  there  was  the 
growing  feeling  that  the  main  office  of  religion  was 
not  to  confer  personal  advantage,  either  present  or 
prospective,  but  rather  to  induce  and  enable  men 
to  do  right  in  all  their  dealings  with  their  fellows 
and  in  the  way  they  bore  themselves  toward  their 
Maker.  This  idea  that  God  is  pleased  with  right- 
eousness, and  with  nothing  else,  was  by  no  means 
common  in  those  early  days — and  it  is  not  even  now 
so  universal  in  the  religious  thinking  of  the  world 
as  to  be  entirely  commonplace.  The  rude  stone  tab- 
lets on  which  they  chiselled  these  divine  commands 
— so  simple  at  first  that  they  were  habitually  called 
"  the  ten  words  " — were  kept  in  a  place  of  honor  in 


202    SOCIAL  MESSAGE  OF  THE  MODERN  PULPIT 

the  ark  of  the  covenant;  they  were  carried  along 
by  the  people  in  all  their  wilderness  wanderings ;  and 
on  the  first  approach  to  the  land  of  promise,  they 
were  borne  by  the  priests  at  the  head  of  the  march- 
ing host,  fit  symbols  of  that  moral  order  to  which 
they  looked  for  wholesome  guidance. 

In  that  sign  they  conquered ;  and  in  that  sign  only 
can  men  conquer  now.  We  may  ask  if  we  choose  in 
regard  to  any  industrial  arrangement,  "  Is  it  expe- 
dient? "  "  Is  it  shrewd?  "  "  Will  it  win?  "  But 
no  genuine  progress  will  be  made  until  we  come 
to  ask  steadily  and  sternly  in  regard  to  our  whole 
course  of  action  and  our  prevailing  method  in  these 
matters,  "  Is  it  right? "  All  methods  which  are 
morally  wrong  have  against  them  the  God  of  Abra- 
ham and  of  Isaac  and  of  Jacob,  the  God  of  Israel, 
and  of  Egypt  and  of  America;  and  in  time  He  will 
relentlessly  beat  down  all  those  wrong  methods  into 
the  dust.  And,  conversely,  all  wise  and  just  efforts 
which  have  as  their  object  the  deliverance  of  the 
people  from  industrial  oppression  and  social  wrong 
have  this  same  God  powerfully  on  their  side;  and 
though  for  forty  years  and  more  they  wander  in  the 
desert  of  failure  and  experiment,  they  will  come  at 
last,  under  His  sure  guidance,  into  full  possession  of 
the  land  of  promise. 

These  commandments  of  old  were  not  all  prohibi- 


TRAINING   IN   INDUSTRIAL  FREEDOM         203 

tions,  nor  were  they  the  mere  commonplaces  of  mo- 
rality. How  much  it  means  that  there  in  the  very 
heart  of  them,  printed  as  they  are  in  our  holy  books, 
inscribed  on  the  walls  of  our  churches,  chanted  by 
our  choirs  in  public  worship,  there  stands  an  act  to 
regulate  the  hours  of  labor!  That  fourth  command- 
ment was  meant  to  secure  for  all  the  weary  toilers 
of  earth  one  rest  day  in  every  seven — alas,  that  hu- 
man greed  and  hard  necessity  have  so  often  robbed 
the  weary  of  their  birthright!  It  was  clearly  an 
instance  of  labor  legislation.  So  far  as  history  re- 
cords, the  first  attempt  ever  made  to  regulate  the 
hours  of  labor  by  law  was  made  there  at  Sinai, 
when  the  Lord  God  spoke  to  a  company  of  working- 
men  just  delivered  from  bondage,  and  said,  "  Six 
days  shalt  thou  labor  and  do  all  thy  work,  but  the 
seventh  day  is  the  Sabbath  of  the  Lord  thy  God :  in  it 
thou  shalt  not  do  any  work,  thou  nor  thy  son,  nor 
thy  daughter,  nor  thy  man-servant,  nor  thy  maid- 
servant, nor  thine  ox,  nor  thine  ass,  nor  any  of  thy 
cattle,  nor  thy  stranger  that  is  within  thy  gates,  that 
thy  man-servant  and  thy  maid-servant  may  rest  as 
well  as  thou.  And  thou  shalt  remember  that  thou 
wast  a  servant  in  the  land  of  Egypt.  And  that  the 
Lord  thy  God  brought  thee  out  thence  through  a 
mighty  hand  and  by  an  outstretched  arm;  therefore 
the  Lord  thy  God  commanded  thee  to  keep  the  Sab- 


204    SOCIAL  MESSAGE   OF  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

bath  day."  They  were  urged  to  keep  this  rest  day, 
for  themselves  and  for  their  employes,  in  grateful 
remembrance  of  the  fact  that  the  Author  of  the  com- 
mand had  delivered  them  from  Egypt,  where  they 
once  toiled  unceasingly  without  the  blessed  truce  of 
one  rest  day  in  seven.  In  view  of  this  divine  utter- 
ance regulating  the  hours  of  labor,  all  those  critics 
who  feel  that  the  discussion  of  industrial  problems 
before  the  altars  of  religion  is  somewhat  out  of  place 
might  do  well  to  read  once  more  the  Ten  Command- 
ments, as  they  stand  recorded  in  the  fifth  chapter  of 
Deuteronomy. 

Other  items  of  industrial  legislation  attributed  by 
the  narrator  to  a  divine  source  during  this  period 
will  occur  to  every  one.  Usury  was  forbidden.  Per- 
sonal clothing  or  the  necessary  tools  of  a  man's  trade 
were  not  to  be  seized  for  debt.  Wages  were  not  to 
be  retained  when  due,  to  the  embarrassment  of  those 
who  had  earned  them.  The  pawn  shops,  which  ap- 
parently had  already  appeared  among  the  Hebrews, 
were  not  to  keep  overnight  a  heavy  garment  which 
had  been  pledged — the  debtor  was  to  be  allowed 
the  comfort  of  it  during  the  hours  of  sleep.  Just 
weights,  a  just  hin,  and  a  just  balance  were  made 
mandatory  by  divine  edict.  Rigorous  commands 
were  given  against  all  manner  of  bribery.  Pains- 
taking sanitary  provisions  were  laid  down,  for  rit- 


TRAINING   IN   INDUSTRIAL   FREEDOM         205 

ualistic  rather  than  for  hygienic  reasons  it  may  have 
been  at  first,  but  vindicating  themselves  in  the  im- 
proved health  of  the  people.  Directions  as  to  the 
treatment  of  leprosy,  abscesses,  and  the  fumigation 
of  houses  in  case  of  contagious  illness  all  issued  from 
Jehovah. 

The  doctrine  of  land  attributed  to  Moses  is  of 
the  greatest  industrial  significance — it  provided  for 
titles  to  be  held  in  such  a  way  that  land  could  not 
be  permanently  alienated  from  the  family  line  or 
monopolized  for  any  length  of  time  by  the  strong 
to  the  injury  of  the  weak.  The  poor  were  also  pro- 
vided for  in  a  way  that  would  go  far  toward  pre- 
serving both  their  self-respect  and  the  habit  of  in- 
dustry— the  vines  were  not  to  be  entirely  stripped 
of  grapes,  nor  the  olive-trees  beaten  a  second  time, 
nor  the  corners  of  the  wheat  fields  reaped.  Some- 
thing was  to  be  left  in  all  these  quarters  for  the 
poor,  and  these  provisions  made  it  possible  for  the 
needy  to  thus  gain  assistance  at  the  expenditure  of 
a  certain  effort  on  their  own  behalf.  These  are  but 
a  few  of  the  many  social  and  industrial  questions 
dealt  with  in  the  legislation  of  that  day.  They  make 
plain  the  fact  that  the  ideal  before  the  minds  of  the 
leaders  of  the  movement  was  a  fraternal  community 
under  the  paternal  care  of  God,  who  was  literally 
the  head  of  that  theocratic  system.  Their  thought 


206    SOCIAL  MESSAGE   OF  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

was  that  the  divine  wisdom  addressed  itself  frankly 
and  thoroughly  to  the  task  of  establishing  for  all  the 
oppressed  a  new  social  order,  which  would  in  its 
very  terms  be  calculated  to  encourage  spiritual 
progress. 

Here  under  the  shadow  of  Sinai,  then,  those  Is- 
raelites were  made  to  feel  that  all  high  privileges 
are  accompanied  by  serious  obligations.  In  the  full 
enjoyment  of  their  new-found  freedom  they  imme- 
diately discovered  that  there  was  laid  upon  them  a 
holy  responsibility  touching  the  use  to  be  made  of 
those  advantages — even  as  the  man  who  insists  to- 
day upon  his  right  to  manage  his  own  business  in 
his  own  way  should  be  made  to  realize  that  such 
right  is  modified  by  his  obligation  to  manage  it  in 
such  a  way  that  his  prosperity  shall  include  a  fair 
measure  of  prosperity  for  the  men  whose  interests 
and  destinies  are  bound  up  with  his  own  in  that  en- 
terprise. And  the  man  who  insists  upon  his  right 
to  work,  at  anything  he  pleases  and  for  anything 
he  pleases,  should  remember  that  that  right  is  modi- 
fied by  his  obligation  not  to  imperil  human  standards 
of  living  for  the  whole  class  of  men  with  whom  he 
stands.  The  moral  bearing  of  our  acts  upon  the 
interests  of  others  must  be  considered  always,  even 
more  than  our  own  present  and  personal  advantage. 
The  word  of  God  from  Sinai,  touching  the  moral 


TRAINING   IN   INDUSTRIAL   FREEDOM         207 

obligations  which  accompany  all  material  advan- 
tages, must  be  heard  and  heeded.  '  Ye  have  seen 
what  I  did  unto  the  Egyptians,  because  of  you. 
Now,  therefore,  obey  my  voice  and  keep  my  cove- 
nant, and  ye  shall  be  a  treasure  unto  me  above  all 
people.  Keep  these  words,  and  do  them,  that  it 
may  be  well  with  thee  in  the  land  which  the  Lord 
thy  God  giveth  thee.' 

But  straight  in  the  face  of  their  open  vision  of 
this  moral  order,  and  of  the  divine  favor  which 
would  rest  upon  them  if  they  observed  it,  there 
came  a  disgraceful  falling  away.  It  is  painful  al- 
ways to  see  a  man  or  a  movement  faced  right  but 
"  staining  the  even  virtue  of  its  enterprise "  by 
moral  fault,  and  it  is  painful  here  to  turn  the  leaf 
and  read  the  next  chapter  in  the  story  of  this  an- 
cient labor  movement.  In  the  absence  again  of  com- 
petent leadership,  "  when  the  people  saw  that  Moses 
delayed  to  come  down  out  of  the  mount,"  they  gath- 
ered themselves  to  Aaron,  saying,  "  Up,  make  us 
gods  to  go  before  us;  as  for  this  Moses,  the  man 
who  brought  us  up  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt,  we  wot 
not  what  is  become  of  him."  The  absence  of  some 
one  whose  wisdom  and  character  would  enable  him 
to  point  the  way  in  such  fashion  that  the  people 
would  be  ready  to  follow,  became  the  immediate 
occasion  of  their  downfall. 


208    SOCIAL  MESSAGE   OP  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

Jehovah  was  indeed  their  God  and  their  Guide, 
but  He  was  unseen.  In  the  thoughts  of  many  of 
those  uninstructed  slaves  He  was  far  away.  They 
craved  some  visible,  tangible  embodiment  of  that 
supreme  leadership.  God  in  the  skies,  or  Moses, 
His  prophet,  at  the  top  of  the  sacred  mount,  ceased 
to  influence  them — they  demanded  a  leader  who 
mingled  daily  in  the  life  of  the  camp.  It  is  the  face 
like  our  own  face,  looking  upon  us  with  divine  com- 
passion, the  hand  like  our  own  hand,  pointing  the 
way,  and  the  heart  like  ours,  tempted  in  all  points 
as  we  are,  and  thus  possessed  of  genuine  sympathy, 
which  bring  that  assurance  of  the  divine  interest 
that  becomes  effective.  The  foolish  idolatry  of 
those  early  Israelites  when  they  said  to  Aaron,  "  Up, 
make  us  gods,"  was  a  misdirected  and  disastrous  at- 
tempt to  bring  God  near,  but  it  sprang  from  that 
same  need  of  an  ever-present  leadership,  divine  in 
spirit,  but  human  and  visible  in  its  real  manifes- 
tation. 

And  is  not  that,  I  repeat  again,  the  sorest  need 
of  the  toiling  and  burdened  children  of  America 
to-day?  The  leadership  they  really  crave,  in  order 
to  be  genuinely  effective,  must,  in  my  judgment, 
follow  the  main  lines  of  the  method  of  the  Incarna- 
tion. It  must  needs  be  born  in  lowly  conditions,  in 
the  manger  of  a  stable  perhaps  in  some  Bethlehem 


TRAINING  IN   INDUSTRIAL   FREEDOM         209 

of  Judea.  It  must  know  the  plain  fare,  the  daily 
toil,  the  humble  surroundings,  and  make  its  increase 
in  stature,  in  wisdom,  and  in  grace  through  the  ex- 
perience of  some  useful  trade,  like  that  of  the  car- 
penter. It  must,  for  a  complete  realization  of  the 
wide-spread  anxiety  touching  the  means  of  support, 
have  known  days  when  it  had  not  where  to  lay  its 
head.  It  must  be  able  to  announce  its  mission,  with 
the  genuine  note  of  reality,  in  some  such  words  as 
these:  "  The  Spirit  of  the  Lord  is  upon  me,  because 
he  hath  anointed  me  to  preach  good  tidings  to  the 
poor ;  he  hath  sent  me  to  bind  up  the  broken-hearted, 
to  preach  deliverance  to  the  captives,  and  to  set  at 
liberty  them  that  are  bruised."  It  may,  indeed,  in 
the  fulfilment  of  its  mission,  be  compelled  to  lay 
down  its  life  for  the  sheep,  and  possibly  to  die  out- 
side the  gates,  unblessed  by  the  ecclesiasticism  of  its 
day — such  has  been  the  fate  of  some  of  the  noblest 
examples  of  moral  leadership  the  world  has  ever 
seen,  and  the  painful  story  may  not  be  even  yet  com- 
plete. The  general  type  of  leadership  which  is  to 
advance  the  interests  of  the  laboring  people  of 
America  is  certainly  indicated  in  broad  outlines  by 
the  life  of  the  Carpenter  of  Nazareth.  The  One 
who  was  able  to  make  the  high  claim,  "  I  am  the 
way,"  took  not  on  Him  "  the  nature  of  angels — He 
took  the  seed  of  Abraham/'  the  nature  of  His  own 


210    SOCIAL  MESSAGE   OF  THE  MODERN   PULPIT 

race :  "  He  took  upon  himself  the  form  of  a  ser- 
vant," and  went  about  doing  good;  He  became 
humbly  obedient  to  all  the  demands  of  an  exacting 
service. 

An  angel  of  economic  wisdom  sitting  comfortably 
apart  in  a  well-endowed  university  chair,  or  an  arch- 
angel of  piety  standing  up  in  a  well-supported,  well- 
guarded  pulpit,  lecturing  the  humble  toilers  on  their 
shortcomings,  will  never  suffice.  Some  one  who  has 
himself  done  rough  work,  earned  his  bread  by  the 
sweat  of  his  brow,  kept  warm  his  sympathies  with 
the  wage-earning  millions  by  actually  sharing  their 
lot,  yet  who  is  withal  wise  and  just,  must  come  to 
state  the  message  of  God  to  his  fellows  in  the  lan- 
guage in  which  they  were  born,  and  to  point  the 
way  by  walking  in  it  on  his  own  two  feet.  That  type 
of  leadership,  I  believe,  is  the  most  pressing  need 
in  the  industrial  struggle  to-day;  and  for  lack  of  it, 
many  people  still  go  off  after  false  gods  and  degrade 
their  high  contention  by  the  debasing  idolatry  of 
force. 

In  response  to  the  request  of  those  mistaken  Is- 
raelites, Aaron  took  their  ornaments  of  gold  and 
fashioned  for  them  a  golden  calf.  The  form  of  the 
idol  was  naturally  determined  by  the  influence  of 
an  earlier  environment.  In  Egypt  they  had  wit- 
nessed the  worship  of  the  sacred  bull  Apis  with  all 


TRAINING   IN   INDUSTRIAL   FREEDOM         211 

the  stately  ritual  of  that  ancient  cult.  Aaron  there- 
fore set  up  this  golden  calf  and  made  proclamation: 
"  These  be  thy  gods,  O  Israel,  which  brought  thee 
up."  The  Israelites  in  the  Nile  delta  had  seen  the 
ruling  and  successful  classes,  under  whose  power 
they  had  toiled,  worshipping  the  sacred  bulls,  and 
the  power  of  that  example  was  still  strong  upon 
them.  They  sang  and  danced  before  the  golden  calf 
in  the  ardor  of  religious  feeling;  they  cast  aside  their 
loose  garments,  dancing  half-naked  in  unseemly  ex- 
citement, like  the  dervishes  of  the  East,  before  this 
god  of  gold;  they  also  prostrated  themselves  before 
it  in  reverent  allegiance.  It  was  a  horrible  and  a 
saddening  sight  that  met  the  eye  of  Moses  as  he 
came  down  the  side  of  the  mount ! 

But  there  was  nothing  surprising  in  it  all — bull- 
worship  was  a  leading  feature  in  the  devotion  of 
the  most  successful  people  those  Israelites  had  ever 
known.  Let  similar  cause  exist  anywhere,  and  a 
similar  result  will  follow  inevitably.  Let  the  well- 
to-do  people  of  any  nation  in  any  period  of  the 
world's  history  preach,  for  example,  the  gospel  of 
materialism;  let  them  say  by  their  actions  (which 
speak  louder  than  prayers)  that  big  dinners  and 
fine  clothing,  palatial  homes  and  costly  entertain- 
ments, expensive  yachts  and  high-priced  automobiles, 
are  the  main  things  in  life !  let  them  say,  "  These 


212    SOCIAL  MESSAGE   OF  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

be  the  gods  which  bring  us  up  into  happiness  and 
peace  " — and  slowly  but  surely  the  toiling  people 
will  also  be  materialized.  And  this  passion  for  ma- 
terial advantage  may  become  so  strong  as  to  impel 
the  plain  people  to  lawless  and  cruel  efforts  in  order 
to  gain  some  of  these  joys  for  themselves.  Let  the 
gods  of  gold  be  set  up  by  the  leaders  of  society  in 
the  place  of  intelligence  and  aspiration,  in  the  place 
of  high  moral  purpose  and  the  spirit  of  social  service, 
and  presently  a  large  part  of  the  nation  will  be  pros- 
trated in  a  degrading  worship  of  material  success. 

Materialism  as  a  philosophical  system  is  in  a  bad 
way — many  of  our  wisest  men  are  saying  that  it  is 
actually  on  its  last  legs.  The  main  drift  of  the  best 
science  and  of  the  best  philosophy  of  the  hour  is 
toward  the  claim  that  final  reality  is  not  matter,  but 
mind  or  spirit.  Those  men  who  noisily  proclaim 
that  "  there  is  nothing  in  human  nature  which  can- 
not be  accounted  for  by  chemistry,"  and  that  "  vice 
and  virtue  are  as  purely  the  products  of  physical 
forces  as  sugar  and  vitriol,"  are  merely  belated 
minds  overtaken  by  darkness,  and  shouting  to  keep 
up  their  courage.  The  men  who  can  see  the  horse 
but  cannot  see  the  rider  who  guides  him  are  being 
convicted  to-day,  by  a  more  searching  diagnosis,  as 
afflicted  with  intellectual  astigmatism.  Materialism 
as  a  philosophical  system,  therefore,  does  not  now 


TRAINING  IN   INDUSTRIAL  FREEDOM         213 

cut  much  figure  in  the  world  of  careful  thought. 
But  materialism  as  a  moral  tendency,  in  shaping 
ideals  and  in  determining  lines  of  action,  is  dread- 
fully and  wickedly  active  and  powerful.  "  These 
be  thy  gods,"  men  cry,  touching  those  things  which 
can  be  bought  for  gold  and  sold  again  for  more  gold 
— "  These  be  the  gods  which  bring  us  up  to  happi- 
ness and  peace!  "  Yet  the  whole  ugly  claim  is  as 
false  and  as  disastrous  as  was  the  word  of  Aaron 
there  in  the  wilderness  of  Sinai! 

"  Comfort  first  and  character  afterward,"  is  the 
mistaken  order  proposed  by  these  modern  idolaters. 
Seek  first  all  the  good  things  of  this  world,  and 
then,  when  you  have  them,  you  will  be  in  a  com- 
fortable condition  to  give  thought  to  the  kingdom 
of  God  and  His  righteousness — this  is  the  unnatural 
order  actually  proposed  by  certain  social  reformers 
to  the  wage-earners.  But  the  order  is  altogether 
wrong,  as  you  see  when  you  look  into  the  hearts 
and  into  the  histories  of  those  families  who  have 
steadily  put  comfort  first  and  character  afterward. 
Physical  wants  are  not  the  wants  which  take  prece- 
dence over  all  others.  The  method  of  Him  who 
said  "  Thy  sins  be  forgiven  thee  "  before  He  said 
"  Arise  and  walk "  is  the  philosophical  method. 
Seek  first  reverence,  trust,  and  obedience  toward 
Him  whose  great  aid  you  need  in  your  effort;  seek 


214    SOCIAL  MESSAGE  OF  THE  MODERN  PULPIT 

the  spirit  of  justice,  truth,  and  purity  toward  your 
fellow-men,  and  then  you  will  be  in  a  position  stead- 
ily to  add  all  those  things  which  make  for  abun- 
dant and  joyous  life!  This  is  thy  God,  O  Israel, 
and  not  those  shameful  substitutes  which  are  wick- 
edly put  forward  in  His  place! 

Moses  came  down  the  mountainside,  his  eyes 
resting  upon  the  ugly  idolatry,  his  heart  heavy  with 
discouragement  over  the  fickleness  of  those  favored 
people,  and  his  whole  attitude  terrible  in  its  right- 
eous indignation!  With  blanched  face  Aaron  en- 
treated him :  '  Let  not  the  anger  of  my  lord  wax 
hot;  thou  knowest  this  people  that  they  are  set  on 
evil.  They  said,  '  Make  us  gods,'  and  I  said,  '  Who- 
soever hath  any  gold  let  him  break  it  off  and  bring 
it  to  me.'  And  I  cast  it  into  the  fire — and  there 
came  out  this  calf ! '  He  disclaimed  all  responsibil- 
ity in  the  matter,  as  do  all  weak-kneed  sinners  who 
would  lay  the  entire  blame  for  their  own  wrong- 
doing on  some  outside  fact — the  people  wanted  a 
god;  he  cast  the  gold  into  the  fire,  and  the  fire  did 
the  rest!  But  Moses  sharply  reprimanded  him  for 
his  share  in  this  moral  lapse;  he  broke  up  the  idol 
and  burned  it  in  the  fire;  he  ground  it  to  powder, 
strewing  the  dust  upon  water  which  he  forced  the 
people  to  drink.  And  no  apology  is  needed  for  that 
expression  of  wrath,  because  hatred  of  evil,  hot,  live, 


TRAINING  IN   INDUSTRIAL   FREEDOM         215 

and  terrible,  is  simply  the  reverse  side  of  the  love  of 
good!  The  milksop,  incapable  of  such  moral  indig- 
nation, is  not  spiritually  sound.  The  wrath  of  God 
Himself  is  a  real  and  inevitable  attribute  of  His 
perfect  character,  because  indignation,  terrible  and 
eternal,  against  the  evil  which  would  ruin  His  chil- 
dren is  absolutely  imperative  in  a  God  of  holy  love. 

Had  Moses,  in  the  spirit  of  easy  toleration,  ac- 
quiesced in  the  worship  of  the  golden  calf,  the  cry 
would  have  rung  out,  from  day  to  day,  "  These  be 
thy  gods,  O  Israel,"  until  the  false  claim  would  have 
come  to  be  widely  believed.  The  high  moral  pur- 
pose and  the  spiritual  aspiration  which  characterized 
the  movement  at  the  outset  would  have  faded  out, 
and  those  Hebrews  would  have  lapsed  into  a  few 
wandering  tribes  worshipping  the  bull  of  brute  force, 
or  prostrating  themselves  before  the  material  value 
of  a  golden  idol.  In  the  absence  of  any  fundamen- 
tal, commanding,  and  ever-enlarging  allegiance,  this 
ancient  labor  movement  would  have  ended  in  dismal 
failure.  It  was  imperative,  therefore,  that  this  peo- 
ple should  be  held  firmly  to  the  worship  of  the  un- 
seen God,  who  ever  leads  His  people  on  and  up 
through  their  growing  devotion  to  the  highest  con- 
ception of  the  divine  their  minds  can  grasp. 

And  with  no  less  moral  determination  and  spirit- 
ual passion  than  was  manifest  in  this  action  of 


216    SOCIAL  MESSAGE   OF  THE  MODERN   PULPIT 

Moses,  there  must  likewise  come  to  our  modern  life 
a  resolute  calling  away  of  the  people  from  the  un- 
seemly idolatry  of  material  success,  a  facing  toward 
those  spiritual  ideals  which  alone  insure  permanent 
and  thorough  well-being.  In  the  conversation  of 
the  home  and  in  the  spirit  of  social  life,  in  the  dis- 
cussion of  industrial  problems  and  in  the  voice  of 
literature,  in  the  real  aims  of  the  university  and  in 
the  teaching  of  the  churches,  there  must  come  a  pro- 
found turning  away  from  slavish  allegiance  to  the 
ambition  for  material  accumulation.  There  must 
ring  out  a  fresh  summons  to  the  definite  worship  of 
the  living  God. 

If  society  fails  at  this  point  the  very  movements 
which  have  as  their  aim  the  betterment  of  men  will 
die  for  want  of  moral  energy.  The  spiritual  im- 
pulse, which  must  lie  at  the  heart  of  all  the  splendid 
efforts  of  mankind,  would  in  such  case  be  wanting, 
and  the  progress  of  the  race  would  therefore  be 
stayed.  Monopoly,  luxury,  and  moral  indifference 
destroyed  the  Roman  Empire  because  they  set  up 
idols  for  men's  regard  which  were  not  meant  to  be 
the  objects  of  their  fundamental  allegiance.  And 
the  unwholesome  idolatry  of  an  outward  success, 
often  unjustly  and  unworthily  achieved  in  modern 
times,  must  give  place  to  nobler  aspirations  in  the 
market  and  in  the  polling-place,  in  the  counting-room 


TRAINING  IN   INDUSTRIAL   FREEDOM         217 

and  in  the  language  of  the  press,  in  the  ambitions 
of  the  student  and  in  the  upward  look  of  the  wor- 
shipper, if  we,  too,  are  not  to  meet  with  a  similar 
fate. 

These  three  main  lessons,  then,  the  Israelites 
learned  in  the  days  of  their  wandering  through  the 
wilderness  of  Sinai :  First,  they  learned  that  men  live 
in  the  last  analysis  by  the  bounty  of  God,  and  that 
the  best  results  are  only  gained  when  the  food  sup- 
plies are  so  equitably  administered  that  each  man 
gathers  according  to  his  eating,  the  strong  so  con- 
secrating their  strength  that  they  have  nothing  to 
waste,  and  the  weak  so  aided  in  their  feebler  effort 
that  they  have  no  lack.  Second,  they  learned  that 
the  whole  struggle  for  industrial,  domestic,  social, 
and  political  well-being  must  be  carried  on  under  the 
shadow  of  and  in  growing  harmony  with  a  moral 
order,  symbolized  by  the  stern  presence  of  Sinai, 
visibly  and  audibly  insistent  upon  the  sacredness  of 
life  and  purity,  of  truth  and  property,  of  family  ties 
and  religious  obligations.  And,  finallv,  they  learned 
that  there  cannot  safely  be  set  up  any  symbol  of 
brute  force  or  any  gods  of  gold  in  the  place  of  Him 
who  is  entitled  to  receive  the  utmost  devotion  of  our 
hearts,  and  who  alone  is  able  to  produce  that  quality 
of  life  which  shall  gain  entrance  into  the  land  of 
promise. 


CHAPTER   YH 

THE   NEW   SOCIAL    OBDEB 

WE  saw  these  Israelites,  in  the  last  lecture,  brought 
immediately  under  the  power  of  a  divine  law  there 
at  Mount  Sinai.  They  were  made  to  feel  that  in 
their  struggle  for  industrial  betterment  they  must 
adjust  all  their  efforts  to  the  moral  order  which  en- 
folded them.  They  saw  that  this  moral  order  was 
universal  and  abiding — they  could  no  more  escape 
from  it  than  from  the  power  of  gravitation. 

But  the  content  of  the  law  given  at  Sinai,  made 
up,  as  it  was,  so  largely  of  "  Thou  shalt  nots,"  did 
not  embody  all  that  was  essential  for  their  moral 
unfolding.  It  did  indeed  guard  the  sacredness  of 
life  and  purity,  of  truth  and  property,  of  family  ties 
and  of  religious  obligations,  chiefly  by  throwing 
around  them  the  high  fence  of  certain  prohibitions. 
It  was  necessary,  however,  that  there  should  be  in 
the  hearts  of  these  men  that  positive  spirit  of  ser- 
vice and  of  devotion  to  the  common  good  requisite 
for  permanent  progress  in  social  well-being.  We 
find,  therefore,  in  the  further  narrative  of  their  ex- 

218 


THE  NEW  SOCIAL  ORDER  219 

periences,  the  demand  made  for  a  sacrificial  life: 
"An  altar  shalt  thou  make,  and  offer  thereon  burnt 
offerings  and  peace  offerings." 

The  whole  history  of  the  idea  of  sacrifice  is  a 
most  interesting  one.  In  the  minds  of  many  primi- 
tive peoples  the  consecration  of  any  form  of  life 
to  God  was  best  accomplished  by  killing  and  burn- 
ing it.  They  brought  the  firstlings  of  their  flocks 
and  slew  them  with  religious  ceremony.  They  laid 
the  bodies  of  these  slain  beasts  upon  the  altar  and 
burned  them.  As  the  flames  consumed  the  offering, 
taking  it  utterly  out  of  their  hands,  as  the  smoke 
rose  toward  the  sky  and  the  fragrance  of  the  roasted 
meat  was  wafted  upward,  the  people  truly  believed 
that  there  was  being  carried  into  the  very  presence 
of  the  deity  they  worshipped  the  essence  and  sweet 
savor  of  their  offering. 

We  find  this  primitive  habit  of  thought  manifest- 
ing itself  sometimes  even  in  the  consecration  of  the 
lives  of  human  beings.  It  was  not  unusual  for 
fathers,  in  the  extravagance  and  crudity  of  their  de- 
sire to  show  devotion  to  their  deities,  to  offer  up 
their  own  children  in  sacrifice.  Abraham  the  tradi- 
tional father  of  the  Hebrew  people  temporarily  influ- 
enced on  one  occasion  by  this  mistaken  idea,  took  his 
son  Isaac  to  Mount  Moriah  to  offer  him  as  a  sacrifice 
to  Jehovah,  as  if  to  indicate  that  his  devotion  to  his 


220    SOCIAL  MESSAGE   OF  THE  MODERN   PULPIT 

God  was  no  less  complete  than  the  devotion  of  the 
people  around  him  to  their  gods.  And  the  offering 
of  that  son  to  God  was,  in  his  misguided  judgment, 
to  be  best  accomplished  by  killing  and  burning  him 
with  religious  ceremony. 

There  was  gradually  emerging,  however,  under 
the  tuition  of  the  Divine  Spirit,  a  nobler  idea  of 
sacrifice.  Here  and  there  certain  moral  leaders  in 
Israel  were  coming  to  believe  that  they  could  give 
their  offerings  to  God  without  burning  and  destroy- 
ing them — that,  indeed,  it  would  be  more  acceptable 
in  His  sight  to  preserve  them  and  use  them  for  His 
service.  We  find  this  nobler  conception  of  sacrifice 
drawn  out  clearly  and  at  length  by  the  prophets  of 
the  eighth  century.  And  even  to  Abraham  himself 
in  that  supreme  hour  on  Mount  Moriah,  the  author 
of  the  narrative  says,  there  came  the  suggestion  of 
this  truer  form  of  devotion.  The  impulse  to  give 
his  son  to  Jehovah  was  of  divine  origin — it  was  "  a 
word  of  the  Lord  "  which  came  to  him.  The  form, 
however,  which  the  consecration  of  his  son  at  first 
took  in  the  father's  purpose  was  a  mistaken  form 
suggested  by  the  rude  environment  where  human 
sacrifices  were  not  uncommon.  But  there  on  the 
mount  of  sacrifice,  under  the  open  sky,  when  the 
father  actually  stretched  out  his  hand  to  slay  his 
own  son,  some  final  misgiving  as  to  the  righteousness 


THE  NEW  SOCIAL  ORDER  221 

of  his  course,  some  look  of  consternation  and  appeal 
on  the  face  of  the  child,  perhaps,  some  sober  second 
thought  as  to  whether  any  useful  end  would  be 
served  by  such  an  act,  came  to  this  devoted  patri- 
arch as  the  voice  of  God  from  heaven.  His  hand 
was  stayed.  He  looked  up  and  saw  a  ram  caught 
in  the  bushes.  He  accepted  that  as  a  further  indi- 
cation from  on  high  that  the  life  of  his  son  should 
be  spared.  He  joyously  took  the  ram  and  offered 
it  instead,  keeping  his  son  alive  and  consecrating 
him  to  God  in  more  intelligent  fashion  by  training 
him  for  a  life  of  usefulness.  And  in  the  succeeding 
years  this  nobler  conception  of  sacrifice,  as  best  ac- 
complished by  preserving  and  using  the  devoted 
object  for  the  glory  of  God  and  the  service  of  men, 
came  to  be  gradually  established  in  the  minds  of 
all  the  more  intelligent  worshippers. 

The  real  value  of  these  ancient  sacrifices  lay 
mainly  in  what  they  symbolized.  The  round  and 
round  of  sacrifice  and  burnt  offering,  which  to  the 
careless  reader  seems  so  meaningless,  aided  in  the 
development  of  that  habit  of  mind  which  subordi- 
nates private  interest  to  the  larger  good.  The  gift 
of  the  first-fruits  and  of  the  firstlings  of  the  flock 
became  the  symbol  of  devotion  to  certain  ideals 
which  God  held  before  the  people.  It  was  the  an- 
ticipation of  that  worthier  sacrifice  which  the  peo- 


222    SOCIAL  MESSAGE   OF  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

pie  would  make  when  once  they  learned  to  give 
themselves  to  unselfish  service.  Jesus  the  Messiah, 
the  very  crown  and  consummation  of  religious  de- 
velopment among  the  Hebrews,  brought  no  lamb 
or  bullock  to  be  slain  at  the  altar,  though  such 
sacrifices  were  usual  in  His  day.  He  brought  Him- 
self. The  actual  shedding  of  His  own  blood  upon 
the  cross  was  accomplished,  not  by  Himself  nor  by 
His  followers  nor  by  the  God  whose  will  He  came 
to  do — it  was  accomplished  by  His  bigoted  and  cruel 
enemies.  The  real  offering  and  sacrifice  was  made 
by  Christ  Himself  in  the  depths  of  His  own  spirit 
when,  by  the  dedication  of  His  own  life  to  redemptive 
effort,  "  He  gave  Himself  for  us."  This  eternal 
readiness  on  His  part  to  give  His  life  a  ransom  for 
many  was  what  the  seer  on  Patmos  called  "  The 
Lamb  slain  from  the  foundation  of  the  world." 

The  same  moral  necessity  for  this  spirit  of  sacri- 
fice which  existed  when  those  Israelites  threw  off 
their  slavery  and  began  their  struggle  for  freedom 
exists  now.  "  An  altar  shalt  thou  make  and  sacri- 
fice thereon!  "  If  the  busy,  self-seeking  world  for- 
gets or  neglects  this  fundamental  requirement,  it 
does  so  at  its  peril.  Wherever  self-interest  is  fol- 
lowed solely,  disaster  will  surely  come.  It  matters 
not  whether  it  be  the  self-interest  of  an  association 
of  capitalists  intent  solely  upon  their  own  gain  be- 


THE  NEW  SOCIAL  ORDER  223 

cause  they  hold  a  monopoly  on  certain  goods ;  or  the 
self-interest  of  a  federation  of  labor  unions  forcing 
unreasonable  demands  because  they  hold  a  monopoly 
of  the  employable  labor  of  the  community;  or  the 
self-interest  of  the  two  acting  together,  as  they  have 
done  in  certain  cities,  making  the  helpless  public 
pay  heavy  tribute  through  the  unjust  demands  of 
those  who  have  the  consumers  at  their  mercy — in 
either  event  such  a  selfish  course  brings  disaster  to 
those  larger  interests  which  ought  to  be  held  stead- 
ily in  view.  "  An  altar  shalt  thou  make  and  sac- 
rifice thereon,"  for  in  ways  appropriate  to  mod- 
ern conditions  there  must  be  to-day  that  same 
subordination  of  private  interest  to  the  general 
good! 

We  find  a  strong  statement  of  this  principle  in 
a  widely  read  utterance  made  at  a  notable  meeting 
held  some  time  ago  in  Faneuil  Hall,  Boston.  The 
members  of  the  Central  Labor  Council  of  that  city 
invited  President  Eliot,  of  Harvard  University,  to 
address  them.  For  an  hour  he  spoke  to  them  in  the 
old  "  Cradle  of  Liberty  "  from  a  carefully  written 
paper,  and  then,  for  more  than  an  hour  longer,  he 
replied  to  questions  from  the  floor  asked  by  the 
labor-union  men.  Many  words  of  truth  and  justice 
were  spoken,  as  one  would  expect  from  the  character 
and  ability  of  the  man;  and,  among  the  rest,  these 


224    SOCIAL   MESSAGE   OF  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

significant  words  regarding  the  spirit  of  class  sel- 
fishness : 

"  The  fundamental  object  of  the  Labor  Union  or 
of  the  employers'  association/'  said  President  Eliot, 
"  seems  to  be  merely  the  pecuniary  advantage  of  its 
class;  and  these  organizations  are  exhibiting  that 
same  class  selfishness  which,  in  other  centuries,  has 
been  exhibited  by  nobilities,  priesthoods,  and  sol- 
dieries. The  world  has  had  bitter  experience  of  the 
evils  resulting  from  the  class  selfishness  of  these 
aristocratic,  ecclesiastical,  and  military  combinations ; 
and  democracy  does  well  to  distrust  the  new  devel- 
opment of  this  class  selfishness,  however  different 
the  classes  may  be  which  now  manifest  these  dan- 
gerous qualities." 

All  this  was  saying  in  modern  language  what  God 
said  to  these  Israelites  thirty  centuries  ago.  An 
altar  shalt  thou  make,  a  habit  of  mind  shalt  thou 
build  into  the  common  life,  where  self-interest  is 
subordinated  to  the  larger  good,  where  consecration 
and  public  spirit  are  exalted  above  private  gain! 
The  form  of  this  devotion  must  necessarily  be  de- 
termined by  surrounding  conditions,  but  the  call  for 
genuine  sacrifice  is  just  as  imperative  to-day  as  when 
altars  of  burnt-offering  were  sending  up  their  smoke 
from  the  hill-sides  of  Judea.  This  habit  of  mind  and 
this  quality  of  character  cannot  safely  be  left  out  of 


THE   NEW  SOCIAL  ORDER  225 

any  social  system  which  is  to  abide  for  any  length 
of  time. 

I  am  not  for  a  moment  supposing  that  this  spirit 
is  entirely  wanting  in  modern  life.  It  is  because 
we  have  many  men  of  public  spirit,  habitually  seek- 
ing their  personal  welfare  only  as  it  is  included  in 
the  general  welfare,  steadily  administering  large 
business  interests  in  the  spirit  of  genuine  and  intel- 
ligent good-will,  that  we  enjoy  such  peace  and  se- 
curity as  we  do  possess.  But  there  are,  all  about 
us,  enemies  of  our  peace  who  have  by  no  means 
caught  that  spirit.  They  have  never  taken  to  heart 
that  fundamental  demand,  "  An  altar  shalt  thou 
make  and  sacrifice  thereon!  " 

Look  around  you  at  the  scale  of  expenditure  com- 
monly practised  by  certain  classes  of  people — many 
of  them  Christian  people  and  members  of  our  lead- 
ing churches.  It  has  increased  in  the  last  twenty- 
five  years  at  a  dizzying  rate.  Costly  hotels  and  pala- 
tial yachts,  ornament  and  luxury  dazzling  in  their 
magnificence,  gorgeous  social  entertainments  which 
would  have  made  kings  rub  their  eyes  a  century  ago 
— in  all  these  ways  money  is  being  poured  out  in 
certain  quarters  like  water! 

The  rate  of  interest  on  money  is  much  lower  than 
twenty-five  years  ago.  Ordinary  profits  are  smaller, 
we  are  told,  and  returns  from  investments  narrower 


226    SOCIAL  MESSAGE   OF  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

and  more  uncertain.  Yet  all  the  while  certain 
classes  of  people  are  living  more  and  more  expen- 
sively, at  the  very  time  when,  according  to  the  offi- 
cial reports  regarding  poor  relief  in  the  great  cities, 
the  number  of  people  to  whom  bread  is  a  matter  of 
constant  anxiety  steadily  increases.  It  forces  upon 
you  the  conviction  that  the  great  gulf  between  such 
luxury  and  such  penury  means  a  lack  of  equity  in 
the  distribution  of  the  products  of  the  world's  com- 
mon toil.  When  you  travel,  or  enter  the  homes  and 
the  hotels  and  the  pleasure-grounds  of  the  well-to-do, 
you  are  amazed  that  there  is  so  much  money  to  be 
spent  on  luxury !  When  you  walk  with  Jane  Adams 
through  Chicago,  or  with  Jacob  Riis  through  lower 
"New  York,  or  with  Charles  Booth  through  the  East 
End  of  London,  you  are  amazed  again  that  so  many 
people  are  living  in  penury!  Does  it  not  seem  as 
if  the  warning  of  President  Eliot  regarding  class 
selfishness  was  sorely  needed  by  a  vast  number  of 
people  not  represented  in  the  Central  Labor  Coun- 
cil of  Boston?  That  great  word  of  God,  "  An  altar 
shalt  thou  make,"  a  spirit  shalt  thou  show,  which 
exalts  the  general  good  above  private  gain  or  per- 
sonal indulgence,  is  still  plainly  required. 

Let  me  refer  again  to  a  single  symptom  of  our 
modern  life — the  amazing  and  disgraceful  increase 
of  child-labor  in  this  land  of  opportunity'  I  quote 


THE   NEW  SOCIAL  ORDER  227 

the  following  figures  from  "  The  Social  Unrest,"  by 
John  Graham  Brooks: 

"  From  the  year  1870  to  1880,  among  those  em- 
ployed in  the  cotton  factories  of  the  South,  the 
number  of  men  over  sixteen  years  of  age  increased 
ninety-two  per  cent,  the  number  of  women  over  six- 
teen, seventy-seven  per  cent,  and  the  number  of 
children  under  sixteen}  one  hundred  and  forty  per 
cent.  The  increase  of  child-labor  was  almost  equal 
to  the  combined  increase  of  the  labor  of  adult  men 
and  women. 

"  From  1880  to  1890  the  number  of  men  over  six- 
teen increased  only  twenty-one  per  cent,  the  number 
of  women  over  sixteen  increased  two  hundred  and 
sixty-nine  per  cent,  and  the  number  of  children  in- 
creased one  hundred  and  six  per  cent.  The  increase 
of  the  number  of  women  and  children  employed  in 
these  mills  was  eighteen  times  as  great  as  the  entire 
increase  of  the  number  of  men. 

"  From  1890  to  1900  the  number  of  men  over  six- 
teen increased  seventy-nine  per  cent,  the  number  of 
women  over  sixteen,  one  hundred  and  fifty-eight  per 
cent,  and  the  number  of  children  under  sixteen,  two 
hundred  and  seventy  per  cent.  The  increase  of 
child-labor  in  the  last  decade  was  more  than  fifty 
per  cent  in  excess  of  the  total  increase  of  adult 
labor." 


228    SOCIAL  MESSAGE   OF  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

According  to  the  official  report  for  1890  from 
the  Labor  Bureau  of  North  Carolina,  the  only  State 
in  the  South  presenting  an  official  report  upon  labor 
statistics,  less  than  ten  per  cent  of  the  operatives 
in  the  textile-mills  of  that  State  were  under  four- 
teen years  of  age  ten  years  ago,  while,  according 
to  the  report  for  1901,  those  under  fourteen  now 
constitute  nearly  eighteen  per  cent  of  the  whole 
number  employed.  Out  of  a  total  of  forty-five  thou- 
sand and  forty-four  textile  operatives,  seven  thou- 
sand nine  hundred  and  ninety-six,  or  almost  one-fifth, 
are  children  under  fourteen;  and  during  that  same 
period  the  average  daily  wage  of  the  child  has  been 
decreased  from  thirty-two  to  twenty-nine  cents  per 
day. 

More  than  twenty  thousand  children — a  standing 
army  of  social  menace  in  itself — are  at  work  in  these 
mills  at  the  present  moment.  It  is  the  opinion  of 
some  Southern  investigators  that,  if  the  truth  were 
told  in  each  case,  in  place  of  the  fictitious  statements 
as  to  age  offered  by  many  unscrupulous  parents,  and 
all  too  readily  accepted  by  some  equally  unscrupulous 
mill  superintendents,  it  would  be  found  that  fully 
one-third  of  these  twenty  thousand  children  are  under 
ten  years  of  age.  This  certainly  means  a  very  heavy 
legacy  of  future  inequalities  to  be  faced  and  borne. 
These  little  children,  working  in  the  cotton-mills  be- 


THE  NEW  SOCIAL  ORDER  229 

fore  they  are  ten  years  old — -many  of  them  working 
on  the  night  shift,  and  thus  compelled  to  gain  what 
broken  and  troubled  sleep  they  may  during  the 
hours  of  daylight — will  inevitably  grow  up  with  de- 
pleted vitality,  and  they  will,  as  a  consequence,  go 
to  swell  the  number  of  deficients,  delinquents,  and 
dependents  in  the  various  communities  where  they 
dwell.  This  inhuman  desire  to  increase  profits  by 
utilizing  the  cheap  labor  of  the  child  needs  to  be 
brought  face  to  face  with  that  divine  altar  where 
God  demands  that  selfish  gain  be  subordinated  to 
the  larger  interests  at  stake. 

In  the  days  of  Robert  Owen  a  certain  manufac- 
turer, who  had  pronounced  legal  interference  with 
child-labor  "  the  maudlin  sentimentalism  of  those 
who  know  neither  business  nor  human  nature,"  was 
compelled  to  admit  under  close  examination  that  he 
had  been  making  in  the  business  of  cotton  manu- 
facture over  two  hundred  per  cent  in  yearly  profits 
on  his  actual  investment.  Yet  he,  and  the  group  of 
men  who  stood  with  him  in  opposing  the  regulation 
of  child-labor  by  law,  maintained  that  they  could 
not  afford  to  dispense  with  the  labor  of  the  children 
because  "  that  would  drive  the  business  out  of  Eng- 
land! "  The  Southern  mills  in  our  own  country  are 
not  making  any  such  profit  as  that  to-day,  but  some  of 
them  have  been  making,  according  to  their  own  pub- 


230    SOCIAL  MESSAGE   OF  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

lished  statements,  a  very  large  per  cent  upon  the 
capital  actually  invested,  and  they,  too,  are  using 
the  same  argument,  that  they  "  cannot  afford  to  do 
away  with  the  child's  help  because  of  Northern  com- 
petition." 

And  why  are  all  these  thousands  of  ten-  and 
twelve-year-old  children  thrust  into  the  mills  to  work 
eleven  or  twelve  hours  a  day  for  an  average  wage 
of  twenty-nine  cents?  Fathers  and  mothers  in  North 
Carolina,  Alabama,  and  Georgia  feel  toward  their 
children  very  much  as  other  parents  feel.  But  these 
parents  are  poor,  and  because  their  own  wages  are 
scant,  they  send  their  children  to  the  mills  under 
the  stern  pressure  of  want.  The  voice  of  natural 
affection  is  entirely  overborne  by  the  hoarse  croak 
of  hard  necessity  consequent  upon  inequitable  dis- 
tribution in  the  industrial  system  which  enfolds 
them. 

The  selfish  and  cowardly  defence  sometimes  put 
forward  by  those  who  are  willing  to  make  gain  by 
exploiting  the  immature  labor  of  little  children  is 
preposterous.  "  We  could  not  carry  on  our  business 
without  the  little  folks.  It  would  cut  off  our  profits. 
We  could  not  compete  successfully  with  the  other 
mills.  We  would  be  compelled  to  scale  down  our 
handsome  dividends  and  to  deprive  ourselves  of  some 
of  our  wonted  luxuries."  Is  not  a  luxury  which  main- 


THE  NEW  SOCIAL  ORDER  231 

tains  itself  by  consuming  the  flesh  of  boys  and  girls  a 
grave  menace  to  those  who  enjoy  it — is  it  not  more 
after  the  spirit  of  cannibalism  than  according  to  the 
spirit  of  Christianity?  The  very  thought  of  canni- 
balism direct  and  physical  has  become  intolerable  to 
the  civilized  world;  and  the  whole  habit  of  living 
upon  the  life-blood  of  others,  poured  out  though  it 
maybe  at  a  little  distance  and  served  up  in  tooth- 
some factory  dividends  or  in  appetizing  profits, 
wrung  from  enterprises  which  do  not  pay  a  human 
wage,  or  which  make  merchandise  of  the  unripe 
strength  of  little  children,  must  likewise  become  in- 
tolerable! In  the  presence  of  all  such  selfish  ma- 
terialism and  gross  disregard  for  the  present  and 
future  interests  of  others,  it  is  imperative  that  this 
old  demand  for  a  sacrificial  life  should  be  pressed 
home  ceaselessly  upon  the  modern  conscience. 

In  several  States  of  the  Union  bills  were  intro- 
duced at  the  last  session  of  their  legislatures  mak- 
ing illegal  the  employment  of  children  under  twelve 
in  the  factories,  or  the  employment  of  children 
under  fourteen  in  the  factories  between  the  hours 
of  seven  P.M.  and  seven  A.M.;  yet,  in  a  number  of 
these  States  certain  powerful  corporate  interests  re- 
sisted, and  resisted  successfully,  the  enactment  of 
such  a  law.  Even  this  modest  standard  of  decent 
regard  for  the  tender  growths  of  our  common  hu- 


232     SOCIAL  MESSAGE   OF  THE  MODERN  PULPIT 

manity  was  too  high  for  them — they  could  not  at- 
tain unto  it!  The  child-labor  bill  introduced  at  the 
last  session  of  Congress  for  the  regulation  of  these 
matters  in  the  District  of  Columbia  sets  forth  cer- 
tain requirements  which  seem  altogether  reasonable 
and  just.  It  provides  for  the  prohibition  of  the 
gainful  employment  of  children  under  fourteen  years 
of  age,  except  in  agricultural  communities,  where 
farm-labor  outside  of  school  hours  is  exempted;  for 
the  prohibition  of  night  work  between  the  hours  of 
seven  P.M.  and  seven  A.M.  for  all  boys  under  sixteen 
and  for  all  girls  under  eighteen  years  of  age;  for 
the  limitation  of  the  hours  of  work  for  all  children 
under  sixteen  to  eight  hours  per  day  and  to  forty- 
four  hours  per  week;  for  the  requirement  of  an  em- 
ployment certificate  for  all  boys  employed  between 
the  ages  of  fourteen  and  sixteen,  and  for  girls  be- 
tween the  ages  of  fourteen  and  eighteen,  said  cer- 
tificate to  certify  to  the  normal  physical  and  educa- 
tional development  of  the  applicant  for  employment ; 
for  the  absolute  prohibition  of  the  employment  of 
children  under  sixteen  in  any  occupation  injurious 
to  health  or  morals — the  occupations  thus  prohibited 
to  be  designated  officially  once  each  year  by  the 
chief  public  health  and  public  education  authorities 
in  the  district  where  the  child  resides. 

The  importance  of  this  last   requirement   is  in- 


THE  NEW  SOCIAL  ORDER  233 

stantly  apparent  to  those  who  have  seen  boys  of 
twelve  and  fourteen  serving  as  messengers  for  the 
delivery  of  telephone  messages  and  telegrams  to 
women  in  houses  of  ill  repute;  or  boys  of  that  age 
employed  in  the  bars  and  rathskellers  of  large 
hotels,  where  they  hear  the  ribald  jest  and  obscene 
story  and  witness  scenes  which  must  corrupt  and 
degrade;  or  boys  employed  as  pages  in  certain  thea- 
tres, where  night  after  night  they  witness  "  problem 
plays "  or  other  unseemly  performances,  and  are 
brought  in  contact  with  men  and  women  whose  in- 
fluence is  debasing.  The  wrong  done  to  the  mes- 
senger boys  has  been  pressing  for  attention  in  sev- 
eral of  our  cities.  It  was  brought  out  by  the  tes- 
timony of  the  police  officers  in  the  precinct  covering 
the  vicious  quarter  in  Washington,  D.  C.,  that  boys 
as  young  as  ten  and  eleven  had  been  seen  answering 
calls  to  houses  of  ill  repute  by  day  and  by  night. 
"  These  houses  have  their  call-boxes,  and  any  foul 
creature  can,  by  pressing  a  button,  have  a  boy  of 
tender  years  sent  to  her  at  once  to  place  himself 
at  her  service  for  any  errand  of  evil  which  she  may 
wish."  And  the  sad  fact  is  that  this  service  appeals 
strongly  to  the  boys,  both  because  of  the  curiosity 
of  those  who  are  in  process  of  discovering  the  mys- 
teries of  sex  life  and  because  these  women  are  more 
generous  of  their  tips,  perhaps,  than  are  the  people 


234    SOCIAL  MESSAGE  OF  THE  MODERN  PULPIT 

in  respectable  parts  of  the  city.  For  any  corpora- 
tion, in  order  to  increase  its  profits  by  saving  the 
larger  wage  which  a  mature  man  would  require,  to 
thus  send  young  boys  into  these  places  is  altogether 
damnable ;  and  it  argues  great  moral  callousness  that 
our  communities  are  willing  to  tolerate,  and,  in  the 
cheaper  service  enjoyed  through  the  employment  of 
the  immature,  to  profit  indirectly  by  this  detestable 
practice!  That  larger  habit  of  mind  which  looks 
steadily  upon  the  higher  interests  involved  in  any 
course  of  action  and  resolutely  subordinates  private 
interest  and  convenience  to  the  higher  good,  is  as 
sorely  needed  to-day  as  it  was  when  the  God  of  Is- 
rael began  to  educate  His  people  along  that  line  in 
the  prescribed  system  of  sacrifices. 

One  of  the  hopeful  facts  about  the  labor  union 
is  that  it  does  call  upon  its  members  to  make  sacri- 
fices for  the  common  good.  You  will  find  abundant 
illustration  of  this  in  almost  any  wise  and  just  strike. 
Working-men  are  commonly  loath  to  strike,  so  long 
as  it  can  be  avoided  without  an  injustice  which  seems 
to  them  unbearable.  In  the  event  of  a  strike  their 
employers  will  suffer  some  loss — they  may  be  cut 
off  from  some  of  their  accustomed  luxuries,  but  they 
will  not,  in  all  probability,  be  reduced  to  anything 
like  want.  The  strikers  themselves  will  be  out  of 
employment,  which  in  itself  is  a  menace  to  moral  as 


THE  NEW  SOCIAL  ORDER  235 

well  as  to  material  well-being.  They  will  be  com- 
pelled to  economize  their  resources  strictly  because 
all  income  has  ceased.  They  will  oftentimes  be  com- 
pelled to  watch  their  wives  and  children  grow  ragged 
and  thin.  They  will  see  the  little  store  of  savings, 
patiently  built  up  by  self-denial,  waste  away.  They 
may  be  driven  to  incur  at  last  the  plague  of  debt,  to 
be  a  grievous  burden  for  months  to  come.  They 
may  even  have  to  stand  by  and  see  other  men,  single 
men,  perhaps,  who  can  work  cheaper  than  those  who 
have  families  to  support,  or  negroes  from  the  South, 
or  cheap  Asiatic  laborers,  brought  in  to  take  their 
places.  This  is  what  they  may  be  compelled  to  face 
if  the  strike  is  ordered,  and  surely,  in  their  willing- 
ness to  do  all  that  for  the  sake  of  a  principle,  they 
give  evidence  of  a  spirit  of  sacrifice  which  subordi- 
nates immediate  personal  advantage  to  the  general 
good  of  the  class  to  which  they  belong. 

The  recently  published  book  of  John  Mitchell  on 
"  Organized  Labor  "  gives  an  unimpassioned  discus- 
sion of  the  present  situation  in  that  part  of  the  world 
of  manual  labor  with  which  his  personal  service  has 
made  him  familiar.  In  all  the  reviews  of  this  book 
which  I  have  read,  many  of  them  unfriendly  and 
written  by  men  who  were  entirely  out  of  sympathy 
with  labor-union  methods,  I  have  not  seen  a  single 
statement  of  fact  made  by  Mr.  Mitchell  called  in 


236    SOCIAL  MESSAGE  OF  THE  MODERN  PULPIT 

question.  The  most  interesting  pages,  perhaps,  are 
those  in  which  he  relates,  without  flourish  or  rhet- 
oric, the  account  of  the  great  coal  strike  of  1902. 
The  coal  operators,  always  insisting  strongly  upon 
a  duty  on  coal  "  to  protect  American  industries," 
had  nevertheless  encouraged  the  immigration  of 
Poles  and  Hungarians,  Austrians  and  Italians,  in 
order  to  lower  the  rate  of  wages,  until  one  hundred 
and  forty-seven  thousand  of  these  anthracite  coal 
miners  were  here  at  work.  For  years  these  miners 
from  the  south  of  Europe  had  been  unorganized, 
and  had  in  consequence  been  suffering  from  low 
wages  and  long  hours,  from  unjust  "  docking  "  and 
exorbitant  charges  for  powder,  from  the  exactions  of 
company  stores  and  from  the  fact  that  their  average 
yearly  employment  was  only  one  hundred  and  ten 
days.  They  were  living,  many  of  them,  in  rude  huts 
and  on  scanty  fare,  with  few  or  none  of  the  privi- 
leges and  advantages  of  twentieth-century  civiliza- 
tion. And  because  of  the  narrow  yearly  income 
their  boys  were  put  upon  the  breakers  or  into  the 
mines  when  they  ought  to  have  been  in  school;  and 
the  girls  were  thrust  into  mills  and  factories  by  the 
same  hard  necessities  of  their  families. 

It  was  a  difficult  task  to  organize  these  untrained 
men,  differing  as  they  did  in  language,  in  race,  and 
in  religion.  Many  attempts  had  failed,  but  finally 


THE  NEW  SOCIAL  ORDER  237 

the  one  hundred  and  forty-seven  thousand  anthra- 
cite miners  were  brought  together,  and  after  re- 
peated conferences  they  agreed  upon  a  method  of 
procedure.  When  their  desires  were  made  known 
to  their  employers  the  operators  bluntly  refused  to 
arbitrate  the  matter  or  even  to  meet  the  representa- 
tives of  the  miners.  The  men  were  thus  repulsed 
at  the  very  outset,  yet  for  weeks  and  months  they 
endeavored  to  avoid  the  strike  from  which  they 
knew  that  the  whole  country,  as  well  as  themselves, 
would  surely  suffer.  But  at  last,  for  lack  of  any 
other  course  of  action  which  promised  relief,  they 
went  out  in  one  of  the  greatest  strikes  of  modern 
times. 

During  the  summer  they  cultivated  their  little 
garden  patches;  they  lived  as  long  as  they  could 
upon  their  scanty  savings  and  upon  what  they  raised 
by  pawning  their  watches  and  other  possessions. 
But  by  and  by  their  slender  resources  began  to  be 
exhausted  and  actual  want  was  staring  them  in  the 
face.  The  bituminous  miners  of  the  country  then 
came  to  the  assistance  of  their  fellows  and  voted  to 
give  a  tenth  of  their  own  wages,  and  the  officers  of 
the  unions  offered  to  give  a  third  of  their  salaries, 
to  keep  the  anthracite  miners  alive  until  they  could 
win  out.  The  British  Federation  of  Miners  also 
sent  five  thousand  dollars  across  the  sea  to  brother 


238    SOCIAL  MESSAGE  OF  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

miners,  whom  they  never  saw  and  never  expected  to 
see,  to  aid  them  in  their  struggle.  These  men,  who 
were  striking  for  a  human  existence,  were  hungry 
and  needy;  they  looked  out  through  their  narrow 
windows  and  saw  the  wolf  at  the  door,  but  they  stood 
firm  for  a  principle.  There  was  undoubtedly  vio- 
lence here  and  there  on  the  part  of  the  strikers,  for 
these  one  hundred  and  forty-seven  thousand  miners 
were  men  and  not  angels,  and  they  were  hungry  and 
oppressed  men — and  for  this  violence  no  honest  de- 
fence can  be  or  ought  to  be  made;  but  their  moral 
heroism  as  a  class,  considered  in  its  entirety,  and  the 
stout  adherence  to  principle  displayed  were  splendid! 
The  strike  went  on  for  months,  until  finally  the 
President  of  the  United  States  invited  the  coal  oper- 
ators and  John  Mitchell  to  meet  him  at  the  White 
House.  The  miners,  through  their  representatives, 
offered  at  once  to  submit  the  whole  matter  to  any 
board  of  arbitration  selected  by  the  President,  and  to 
abide  by  its  decision.  The  operators  refused  to  have 
the  questions  at  issue  thus  arbitrated.  This  effort 
of  President  Roosevelt  therefore  failed  and  the 
strike  continued,  until  at  last,  through  the  interven- 
tion of  a  ISTew  York  capitalist,  such  pressure  was 
brought  to  bear  upon  the  operators  that  they  yielded, 
and  the  matter  was  finally  submitted  to  a  board  of 
arbitrators  selected  by  the  President.  The  final 


THE  NEW  SOCIAL  ORDER  239 

award  of  this  board  of  arbitration  granted  almost 
every  request  the  miners  had  made,  showing  that 
their  main  contention  was  just  and  right.  And,  their 
cause  being  just,  we  cannot  but  feel  that  their  hero- 
ism in  waiting,  their  stern  and  long-continued  self- 
denial,  the  readiness  of  their  brother  workers  to  give 
the  tenth  of  their  wages  to  aid  them  in  their  strug- 
gle, all  give  evidence  of  the  extent  to  which  the 
spirit  of  self-sacrifice  and  devotion  to  the  general 
good  of  their  class  has  come  to  prevail  among  the 
toiling  masses.  And  it  is  only  by  some  such  sym- 
pathetic and  concerted  action  upon  the  part  of  all 
the  members  of  society  acting  together,  in  the  inter- 
ests of  that  still  larger  well-being  which  shall  in- 
clude in  its  benefits  all  classes,  that  the  industrial 
system  of  the  world  can  at  last  be  made  a  genuine 
expression  of  the  purpose  of  God  for  all  His  children. 
We  certainly  have  failed  to  build  the  civilization 
God  intends,  so  long  as  there  are  so  many  people 
in  all  our  cities  who  prefer  to  die  rather  than  to 
live.  Ignorant,  immoral,  misguided  souls  they  are 
oftentimes,  not  knowing  what  death  brings,  but  pre- 
ferring whatever  it  may  be  to  the  life  they  are  living 
here — what  a  comment  on  the  existing  social  order! 
The  average  number  of  suicides  at  present  is  nine 
thousand  each  year  in  the  United  States  alone — 
in  1905  there  were  nine  thousand  nine  hundred  and 


240    SOCIAL  MESSAGE   OF  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

eighty-two  suicides  in  this  country.  These  suicides 
are  not  for  the  most  part  romantic  young  fools  who 
kill  themselves  because  some  pretty  miss  in  pink 
ribbons  has  disappointed  them.  They  are  more  com- 
monly men  with  gray  hair  showing  above  their  ears, 
out  of  work  and  out  of  money,  unable  to  gain  em- 
ployment because  they  cannot  in  middle  life  meet 
the  sharp  pace  that  is  set.  They  look  ahead  and, 
seeing  no  hope,  simply  prefer  to  die. 

It  is  a  cowardly  act  for  any  one  to  take  his  own 
life;  the  manly  course  is  to  stand  at  one's  post  and 
fight  the  battle  through  until  relieved  by  the  com- 
mand of  a  superior.  But  I  personally  feel  a  great 
and  tender  charity  for  those  men  who,  worn  out 
before  their  time  by  hard  work  and  long  hours,  with 
bodies  weakened  by  insufficient  food  and  nerves  de- 
pleted by  anxiety,  make  such  moral  shipwreck.  The 
spirit  of  consideration  and  sacrifice  on  the  part  of 
the  strong  for  the  weak  would  prevent  a  consider- 
able percentage  of  these  suicides,  the  number  of 
which  has  become  a  moral  reproach  to  our  modern 
American  life. 

The  amount  of  wages  which  can  be  paid  in  a 
given  industry  is  an  economic  question;  it  cannot  be 
settled  by  quoting  texts  in  church  nor  by  a  show 
of  hands  at  the  labor-union  meeting.  It  must  be 
determined  in  the  light  of  economic  facts  and  forces. 


THE  NEW  SOCIAL  ORDER  241 

The  number  of  hours  necessary  for  men  to  labor 
in  a  certain  business  is  an  economic  question — it 
cannot  be  determined  altogether  by  sentiment  or 
preference.  The  men  whose  main  interest  is  cen- 
tred upon  the  spiritual  values  at  stake  in  the  in- 
dustrial struggle  are  well  aware  of  all  this;  but  they 
contend  that,  in  a  moral  atmosphere  created  by  con- 
scientious men  who  build  altars  and  stand  before 
them  in  that  spirit  of  consideration  for  their  fellows 
which  exalts  the  general  good  above  private  gain, 
these  economic  questions  can  be  gradually  settled  in 
a  way  which  will  not  be  a  reproach  to  our  Christian 
civilization.  In  that  clear  atmosphere  the  choicest 
personal  advantage  will  look  mean  and  poor  if  there 
is  a  shadow  cast  upon  it  by  injustice  to  a  brother 
man.  In  a  society  permeated  by  such  a  spirit  of 
equity,  it  will  be  impossible  to  endure  the  thought 
of  a  really  hopeless  condition  for  the  humblest  mem- 
bers of  our  human  family. 

The  account  of  the  actual  approach  of  those  Is- 
raelites to  their  future  home  is  also  full  of  instruc- 
tion. Their  man  of  vision  saw  the  land  afar  off, 
from  the  higher  level  of  thought  and  feeling  where 
he  stood,  as  from  the  top  of  a  high  mountain.  He 
saw  it  long  before  the  eyes  of  the  people  were  able 
to  discern  even  the  more  prominent  features  of  it. 
His  eyes  outran  his  own  feet,  for  faith  and  hope 


242    SOCIAL  MESSAGE  OF  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

were  far  in  advance  of  actual  achievement.  And  it 
was  in  the  strength  and  courage  induced  by  that 
lofty  vision  that  he  labored  on  in  the  face  of  diffi- 
culty and  discouragement  which  would  have  daunted 
a  less  resolute  faith. 

In  sure  anticipation  of  final  victory,  he  sent  ahead 
twelve  resolute  men,  representing  the  twelve  tribes, 
to  spy  out  the  land  and  to  bring  back  a  report.  This 
venturesome  excursion  into  that  untried  region  was, 
for  these  forerunners  of  a  better  day,  a  work  of 
difficulty  and  danger.  And  upon  their  return  ten 
men  out  of  the  appointed  twelve,  because  of  obsta- 
cles which  they  had  seen,  were  opposed  to  any  fur- 
ther advance — they  stood  ready  to  give  up  the  whole 
undertaking ! 

What  a  picture  of  all  our  brave  attempts  at  prog- 
ress! Ten  men  out  of  twelve  come  back  from  the 
land  of  Canaan  to  Israel's  camp  in  the  wilderness, 
saying :  l  It  is  a  good  land ;  it  is  a  land  flowing  with 
milk  and  honey;  it  is  a  land  of  fruit  and  grain, 
where  one  eats  bread  without  scarceness  and  lacks 
no  good  thing.  But  the  cities  are  walled  and  very 
great;  the  children  of  Anak,  the  giants,  are  there — 
we  were  like  grasshoppers  in  their  sight.  We  are 
not  able  to  go  up  against  these  people,  for  the  dif- 
ficulties are  very  great.'  Only  two  men  out  of  the 
twelve — Caleb  and  Joshua,  men  of  vision  and  pur- 


THE   NEW  SOCIAL  ORDER  243 

pose — stood  ready  to  commit  themselves  to  resolute 
and  hopeful  action.  "  It  is  an  exceedingly  good 
land,"  these  men  said,  "  and  if  the  Lord  delight  in 
us,  He  will  give  us  the  land."  Then,  as  now,  it  was 
to  the  saving  remnant  of  idealists  that  society  had 
to  look  for  genuine  progress — to  that  saving  rem- 
nant which  walks  by  faith  and  not  by  sight,  pro- 
foundly conscious  that  the  things  which  are  seen 
are  temporal,  but  the  things  which  are  unseen  are 
eternal ! 

But  after  wandering  forty  years  in  the  desert  of 
uncertainty  and  preparation,  the  Israelites  could  not 
permanently  encamp  across  the  Jordan,  looking  over 
wistfully  and  fearfully  into  the  green  fields  of 
Canaan.  Leaders  were  sure  to  arise  and  cry,  "  Let 
us  go  up  and  possess  the  land,  for  we  are  well  able 
to  overcome  it !  If  the  Lord  delight  in  us  " — de- 
light in  us  because  of  the  spirit  we  show  and  the 
methods  we  employ — "  he  will  give  us  the  land." 
Movements  for  betterment  which  begin  with  visions 
such  as  Moses  saw  when  the  bush  burned  with  a 
mysterious  fire,  movements  which  are  directed  by 
such  impulses  as  those  which  fired  his  heart  when 
the  divine  voice  spoke  of  the  needs  of  his  fellow- 
men,  movements  which  have  encamped  before  Mount 
Sinai  until  the  leading  principles  of  an  abiding 
moral  order  have  been  engraved  upon  them  as  upon 


244    SOCIAL  MESSAGE  OF  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

tables  of  stone,  cannot  be  permanently  baited,  even 
thougb  ten  men  out  of  twelve  are  timorous  and  de- 
spairing. The  men  of  insight  and  courage  to-day 
who  are  saying  to  the  indifferent  and  the  doubtful, 
"  Let  us  go  up,  for  we  are  well  able  to  produce  some- 
thing better  than  these  present  social  conditions," 
are  made  strong  by  this  same  assurance — they  have 
on  their  side  the  same  Great  Ally.  There  stands 
forever  on  the  side  of  every  better  impulse  in  the 
human  heart,  every  yearning  after  a  truer  life,  every 
stirring  of  the  sense  of  the  obligation  to  others,  this 
same  constant,  powerful,  effective  Ally!  High  walls 
of  difficulty  stand  in  the  way!  Giants  of  selfish- 
ness and  greed,  far  outranking  the  children  of  Anak, 
oppose  our  advance!  But  when  the  returns  are  all 
in,  the  fact  remains  that  there  is  One  with  us 
stronger  than  they!  And  if  God  be  for  us,  who  can 
be  against  us? 

This  better  social  order  which  we  are  to  realize 
does  not  lie  in  some  far-away  country  or  across  the 
river  Jordan.  We  shall  not  gain  it  by  travel,  but 
by  the  gradual  transformation  of  methods  and  con- 
ditions right  at  hand.  The  materials  for  our  land 
of  promise  are  right  here  upon  the  ground.  The 
natural  resources  of  earth  are  more  than  sufficient 
for  all  legitimate  need  if  they  are  properly  used  and 
the  results  of  our  common  labor  equitably  dis- 


THE   NEW  SOCIAL  ORDER  245 

tributed.  The  labor-saving  machinery  of  modern 
times  has  made  it  possible  for  the  industrious  man 
to  produce  all  that  he  and  his  family  need  in  fewer 
hours  than  ever  before  in  the  world's  history.  The 
means  of  transportation  are  such  that,  with  artificial 
and  wicked  barriers  taken  away,  the  interchange  of 
those  commodities,  which  can  be  most  advantage- 
ously produced  by  each  community,  can  be  readily 
accomplished.  The  assessors  tell  us  that  the  increase 
of  the  total  wealth  in  the  United  States  in  the  last 
twenty-five  years  is  such  as  to  make  the  stories  of 
the  Arabian  Nights  seem  dull  and  slow.  It  is  an 
exceedingly  good  land,  a  land  that  floweth  with  milk 
and  honey,  a  land  wherein  all  the  industrious  might 
eat  bread  without  scarceness  and  not  lack  any  good 
thing.  Yet  the  distribution  of  these  advantages  is 
so  imperfect  that  the  problem  of  poverty  in  all  our 
great  cities  is  steadily  becoming  more  serious.  More 
than  half  the  families  in  this  land  are  not  now  sit- 
ting under  their  own  vines  and  fig-trees,  nor  have 
they  any  clear  prospect  of  ever  doing  so.  Multi- 
tudes of  men  and  women  are  working  beyond  their 
strength  for  an  inadequate  return,  and  the  lives  they 
live  are  not  the  lives  of  the  children  of  God!  Thus, 
for  all  those  who  love  their  fellows,  there  remains 
much  work  to  be  done  before  we  really  gain  pos- 
session of  our  land  of  promise. 


246    SOCIAL  MESSAGE   OF  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

The  economic  order  itself,  under  the  direction  of 
strong,  wise,  and  good  men,  must  become  something 
more  than  a  mere  instrument  for  producing  goods. 
It  must  become  a  divinely  appointed  agency  for 
making  men.  The  ultimate  object  of  all  our  efforts 
is  the  gaining  of  human  values,  the  working  out 
of  high  moral  results.  When  "  the  abundance  of 
things  "  becomes  the  main  object  of  desire,  these 
higher  ends  are  ruthlessly  destroyed  by  the  wheels 
of  the  machine.  It  ought  not  to  be  true  that  men 
turn  aside  from  the  ordinary  work  of  the  week  to 
learn  lessons  of  brotherhood  and  humanity  in  the 
sanctuary,  and  then  go  back  to  the  world  of  indus- 
try to  unlearn  them  in  an  atmosphere  of  strenuous 
selfishness.  Somehow,  the  six-days  labor  must  be 
done  in  such  a  spirit,  and  under  such  conditions,  and 
with  such  results,  that  it,  also,  shall  be  a  means  of 
grace. 

This  noble  end  will  be  best  attained  when  em- 
ployers and  employed — men  of  capital  and  men  of 
labor — bear  steadily  in  mind  that  further  word  at- 
tributed to  Moses,  "  The  land  thou  goest  in  to  pos- 
sess is  not  as  the  land  of  Egypt,  from  whence  ye 
came  out,  where  thou  sowest  thy  seed  and  waterest 
it  with  thy  foot,  as  a  garden  of  herbs."  It  was  a  land 
unlike  the  valley  of  the  Nile,  where  men  cultivated 
the  soil  mainly  by  irrigation  from  the  great  river, 


THE   NEW  SOCIAL  ORDER  247 

the  means  of  production  being  there  quite  under 
human  control.  "  The  land  which  thou  goest  in  to 
possess,"  said  their  leader,  "  is  a  land  of  hills  and 
of  valleys,"  where  such  irrigation  would  be  impos- 
sible. "  It  is  a  land  that  drinketh  water  of  the  rain 
of  heaven,"  inclining  the  expectant  tillers  of  the  soil 
to  look  up  as  well  as  down  for  the  sources  of  pros- 
perity, thus  cultivating  within  them  the  sense  of 
dependence  upon  some  Higher  Power.  "  It  is  a 
land  which  the  Lord  thy  God  careth  for,  and  the 
eyes  of  the  Lord  thy  God  are  always  upon  it,  from 
the  beginning  of  the  year  even  unto  the  end  of  the 
year."  The  whole  prosperity,  material  and  spiritual, 
which  they  should  there  achieve  lay  unbrokenly 
within  the  care  and  control  of  the  great  God  above, 
making  imperative  an  intelligent  and  obedient  co- 
operation on  the  part  of  those  who  would  enjoy  the 
highest  well-being. 

In  like  manner  the  land  we  go  to  possess  in  that 
more  equitable  social  order  which  we  seek  to  estab- 
lish, also  drinketh  water  of  the  rain  of  heaven;  it 
is  a  land  which  the  Lord  our  God  careth  for.  The 
well-being  we  seek  is  not  a  thing  solely  of  earth 
and  entirely  under  human  control.  It  must  gain 
supplies  from  above  and  make  headway  through  its 
effective  cooperation  with  a  Higher  Power.  Those 
misguided  men  who  are  telling  the  wage-earners  to 


248    SOCIAL  MESSAGE   OF  THE  MODERN   PULPIT 

fling  religion  to  the  winds,  to  disregard  for  a  time 
those  finer  spiritual  values  and  to  enter  upon  a  flesh- 
and-blood  fight  for  material  advantage,  are  blind 
leaders  of  the  blind.  All  such  counsel  is  disastrous; 
it  is  sure  to  react  upon  those  who  are  foolish  enough 
to  accept  it,  in  the  lowering  of  aspiration  and  the 
weakening  of  high  purpose.  The  well-being  they 
seek  must  forever  gain  its  ideals  and  principles,  its 
ethical  quality  and  inner  spirit,  its  nobler  impulses 
and  requisite  moral  energy,  from  the  rain  of  heaven. 
It  must  reap  its  more  abundant  harvests  by  the  aid 
of  One  who,  after  men  have  ploughed  and  sowed 
up  to  the  limit  of  their  powers,  is  alone  able  to  give 
the  desired  increase.  This  new  social  order  must 
steadily  look  up  as  well  as  out  in  order  to  gain  for 
itself  those  higher  qualities  of  mind  and  heart  nec- 
essary for  genuine  and  enduring  prosperity.  Thus, 
and  only  thus,  shall  the  Holy  City,  the  New  Jeru- 
salem, the  justly  organized  and  joyously  realized 
life  of  men,  descend  out  of  heaven  from  God  and 
be  firmly  established  upon  the  earth. 

It  is  along  this  line  that  the  church  of  Jesus 
Christ  can  render  its  best  service — not  by  devising 
economic  schemes,  or  by  proposing  schedules  of 
wages  (for  the  church  is  not  an  economist),  but 
rather  by  shaming  low  ideals,  by  overcoming  greed, 
by  opposing  that  lack  of  consideration  between  man 


THE  NEW  SOCIAL  ORDER  249 

and  man  which  lies  at  the  root  of  the  trouble.  It 
can  diffuse  the  spirit  of  equity  which  shall  be  oil 
upon  the  machinery  of  industry;  it  can  aid  mightily 
in  producing  that  atmosphere  of  humane  considera- 
tion in  which  the  work  of  social  reconstruction  can 
best  be  carried  forward;  it  can  emphasize  the  moral 
values  at  stake,  which  right-minded  men  are  bound 
to  consider — and  thus  make  its  best  contribution 
toward  finding  "  the  way  out." 

It  is  because  many  of  the  well-meant  movements 
for  the  betterment  of  the  working-people  are  defi- 
cient just  here  that  I  believe  they  are  doomed  to 
failure.  The  programme  of  the  socialist,  for  exam- 
ple, proposes  an  industrial  system  which  calls  for  the 
qualities  of  fidelity,  unselfishness,  and  perseverance 
in  greatly  increased  quantities,  yet  he  seems  to  be 
neglecting  in  his  scheme  any  adequate  provision  for 
producing  that  larger  measure  of  those  qualities. 
"  Give  us  government  ownership  and  government 
control  of  all  the  resources  and  machinery  of  pro- 
duction," the  socialists  say,  "  and  these  men  who  are 
now  selfish,  narrow,  and  false  will  be  public-spirited, 
generous,  and  faithful."  But  will  they?  "What  is 
to  reach  the  springs  of  action,  renew  the  heart, 
purify  and  ennoble  the  affections,  correct  and 
strengthen  the  will?  Thus  far  no  general,  abiding, 
and  reliable  sense  of  brotherhood  has  been  attained 


250    SOCIAL  MESSAGE   OF  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

which  did  not  root  down  into  the  sense  of  a  common 
Fatherhood  in  God. 

The  instability  of  all  social  organization,  which 
entirely  lacks  this  bond  of  religious  fellowship,  is 
indicated  by  Noyes  in  his  history  of  "  American 
Socialism,"  where  he  gives  an  account  of  forty-five 
socialistic  experiments  growing  out  of  the  Robert 
Owen  and  Fourier  movement,  not  one  of  which  re- 
mains— the  average  life  of  each  being  two  years. 
I  once  sat  in  a  socialist  meeting  and  heard  one  of 
the  best-known  socialists  in  America  make  this  state- 
ment: "No  socialistic  experiment  thus  far,  on  a  re- 
ligious basis,  has  ever  been  a  financial  failure — 
many  of  them  have  gone  to  pieces  for  other  reasons, 
but  not  through  financial  failure — and  no  socialistic 
experiment  on  a  secular  basis  has  ever  been  a  finan- 
cial success."  I  am  not  in  a  position  to  pass  upon 
the  accuracy  of  his  statement,  but  if  it  is  true  it 
simply  indicates  that  the  only  sense  of  brotherhood 
which  will  stand  the  wear  and  tear  of  every-day  life 
in  commercial  relations  is  one  which  is  based  on  the 
sense  of  a  common  relation  to  God.  The  prophet  of 
old  was  right — our  well-being,  personal  and  cor- 
porate, is  not  entirely  in  our  own  hands;  it  is  a 
land  which  the  Lord  our  God  careth  for;  it  must 
drink  water  of  the  rain  of  heaven  and  look  upward 
for  its  supplies  of  grace  and  truth,  from  the 


THE  NEW  SOCIAL  ORDER  251 

beginning  of  the  year   even  unto  the   end   of  the 
year! 

In  the  forward  march  toward  the  land  of  promise 
we  need  that  deeper  sense  of  immediate  and  per- 
sonal responsibility  to  Him  who  is  no  respecter  of 
persons,  touching  the  social  bearing  of  all  our  ac- 
tions. The  working-men  in  a  certain  union  may, 
by  their  demands,  succeed  in  raising  wages  and 
shortening  hours.  Their  employer,  instead  of  cur- 
tailing his  luxuries  to  correspond  to  a  reduced  in- 
come immediately  resolves  to  reimburse  himself  out 
of  the  public,  and  so  he  advances  the  price  of  his 
product.  The  men  whose  wages  have  been  advanced 
are  able  to  pay  the  higher  price,  but  it  works  hard- 
ship to  the  poor  and  to  all  whose  wages  were  not 
increased — and  thus  the  advance  of  wages  in  that 
one  industry  works  harm  to  the  community  as  a 
whole.  Thoughtless  young  women,  who  have  homes 
to  live  in  and  no  board  bills  to  pay,  go  to  work  in 
offices  or  in  stores  in  order  that  they  may  have  more 
pin-money  for  ribbons,  feathers,  and  matinee  tick- 
ets. They  can  afford  to  work  for  small  wages,  and 
are  thus  prepared  to  put  themselves  into  effective 
competition  with  men  who  have  families  to  provide 
for,  or  with  girls  who  have  their  own  daily  bread  to 
earn.  In  standing  ready  to  accept  the  smaller  wage 
they  thus  aid  in  reducing  the  earnings  of  bona  fide 


252    SOCIAL  MESSAGE   OF  THE  MODERN   PULPIT 

bread-winners.  Thoughtless  and  selfish  parents,  for 
the  sake  of  a  slight  addition  to  the  family  income, 
thrust  their  children  into  employment,  when  they 
ought  to  be  at  school  or  at  play,  and  by  this  course 
stunt  the  children's  lives  and  reduce  the  wages  of 
adults  by  this  unnatural  competition,  making  those 
wages  still  more  inadequate.  In  all  these  ways  that 
unwillingness  to  consider  the  social  consequences  of 
one's  course,  which  lies  at  the  root  of  many  of  the 
vexed  questions  in  modern  industry,  is  manifest. 
These  are  difficulties  which  can  only  in  slight  degree 
be  reached  by  law  or  enactment — they  must  be  cor- 
rected mainly  by  a  deepening  of  the  sense  of  per- 
sonal responsibility  to  Almighty  God  for  all  our 
actions,  by  the  ennobling  and  enrichment  of  the 
inner  life. 

This  brings  me  naturally  to  my  last  point:  the 
gaining  of  our  land  of  promise  is  no  mere  question 
of  securing  or  of  not  securing  certain  material  ad- 
vantages; it  is  more  than  all  else  a  question  of  hu- 
man values.  Wlien  I  stand  upon  the  shore  of  the 
workaday  world  and  look  out,  I  am  appalled  at  the 
amount  of  unnecessary  wreckage.  Men  in  middle 
life,  worn  out  before  their  time  by  long  hours  and 
hard  conditions,  are  thrust  aside,  as  we  have  seen, 
and,  with  a  sullen  feeling  that  they  have  been  dis- 
credited as  men,  are  doing  the  work  of  the  women 


THE  NEW  SOCIAL  ORDER  253 

in  the  home,  while  the  wife  and  the  children  earn 
bread  for  the  family  by  working  in  the  factory. 
Women  are  taken  from  the  surroundings  and  pur- 
suits to  which  God  has  ordained  them,  robbed  of  the 
sweet  pleasures  of  home,  of  wifehood  and  mother- 
hood, by  the  pressure  of  an  insufficient  wage  on  the 
husbands  and  fathers,  and  are  thrust  into  the  mill, 
thus  becoming  themselves  the  means  of  still  further 
reducing  that  wage.  Immature  children  are  cheated 
of  their  rights  and  mortgaged  as  to  their  future  by 
unnatural  employment.  What  an  incessant  loss  of 
fine  material  is  here  suffered  in  this  industrial  grind ! 
The  fine  material  is  there,  beyond  a  peradventure, 
hidden  away  in  the  ranks  of  the  common  people. 
Now  and  then  a  bit  of  it  stands  revealed  as  a  sample 
of  what  might  be  realized  under  more  favorable 
conditions.  Moses  was  the  son  of  a  slave,  but  he 
framed  laws  which  are  to  this  day  as  the  echo  of 
God's  voice  against  the  walls  of  our  human  hearts. 
David  was  brought  from  the  sheepfold  to  be  the 
greatest  king  that  Israel  ever  had,  and  the  Messianic 
expectation  of  his  race  was  that  One  should  come 
and  rule  who  would  be  "  of  the  house  and  lineage 
of  David."  Martin  Luther,  the  strongest  man  of 
his  time,  one  whose  service  to  the  cause  of  intellect- 
ual and  religious  freedom  the  world  will  never  for- 
get, was  the  son  of  a  miner.  Cromwell,  the  child 


254    SOCIAL  MESSAGE  OF  THE  MODERN   PULPIT 

of  plebeian  parents,  rose  to  be  one  of  the  best  kings 
that  England  ever  knew,  and  left  as  a  priceless  her- 
itage to  the  English-speaking  race  the  conception  of 
civil  government  as  a  true  commonwealth.  Lincoln, 
the  rail-splitter,  by  his  eloquence  and  statesmanship, 
by  the  service  he  rendered  to  humanity,  won  for 
himself  the  undying  esteem  of  the  nations.  The 
common  people  show  an  abundance  of  splendid  ma- 
terial, but  much  of  it  is  forever  lost  through  unjust 
and  adverse  conditions. 

That  old  word  of  Exodus,  quoted  in  a  former 
chapter,  comes  to  our  minds  again — "  the  children  of 
Israel  hearkened  not  unto  Moses  for  anguish  of 
spirit  and  for  cruel  bondage."  Their  hard  lot  un- 
fitted them  for  making  any  real  response;  it  dulled 
their  ears  to  the  appeal  of  spiritual  truth.  Held 
down  to  the  hard,  anxious,  despairing  struggle  for 
the  bare  means  of  existence,  they  were  in  no  con- 
dition to  answer  eagerly  to  the  voice  of  the  Spirit 
or  to  grow  upward  into  the  likeness  and  image  of 
God.  The  social  question  is  always  more  than  a 
question  of  dollars  and  cents,  of  wages  and  hours; 
it  is  a  question  of  human  values. 

And  in  view  of  what  is  at  stake,  there  is  a  loud 
call  for  Calebs  and  Joshuas,  for  courageous  idealists 
and  brave  fighters  who  walk  by  faith,  to  stand  forth 
and  summon  other  men  of  courage  to  go  forward 


THE   NEW  SOCIAL  ORDER  255 

and  possess  the  land  of  a  better  social  order.  The 
giants  of  greed  and  the  walls  of  difficulty  cannot 
be  allowed  to  shut  us  out  or  to  frighten  us  away. 
In  a  noble  unwillingness  to  make  gain  by  taking 
advantage  of  another's  helplessness;  in  a  splendid 
consideration  for  the  moral  values  latent  in  every 
human  life;  in  a  higher  resolve  to  show  intelligent 
good-will  toward  all  whose  lives  are  bound  up  with 
our  own;  in  constant  dependence  upon  Him  who 
alone  can  guide  us  to  victory — we  are  to  move  stead- 
ily up  and  out  of  the  wilderness  of  dreary  sand  and 
bitter  waters  toward  the  fertile  fields  which  lie 
within  our  land  of  promise. 


CHAPTER   VIII 

THE    BEST    LINES    OF    APPROACH 

WE  commonly  find  three  views  held  as  to  the. rela- 
tion which  the  ministers  of  religion  should  sustain 
to  these  social  problems.  There  are  those  who  say 
that  the  church  has  nothing  to  do  with  them  di- 
rectly— its  whole  business  is  "  to  save  souls,"  mean- 
ing by  that,  as  a  rule,  the  cultivation  of  individual 
piety.  There  are  others  who  behold  in  the  work  of 
solving  these  social  problems  a  new  and  better  form 
of  religion  which  is  to  entirely  supplant  the  old. 
These  persons  cast  ordinary  religious  faith  and  wor- 
ship quite  out  of  their  synagogue;  they  give  their 
whole  strength  to  the  relief  of  actual  need  or  to  the 
task  of  improving  the  common  environment.  And 
there  are,  in  the  third  place,  those  who  are  striving 
for  that  truer  synthesis  wherein  lies  the  real  unity 
of  the  things  of  sense  and  the  things  of  the  spirit. 
They  know  that  "  God  is  Spirit,"  and  that  whosoever 
would  approach  God  directly  must  do  so  from  the 
side  of  his  own  nature  which  is  also  spirit.  But 
they  know,  too,  that  the  common  life,  with  all  its 

256 


THE  BEST  LINES   OF   APPROACH  257 

material  interests  included,  furnishes  the  only  fruit- 
ful field  for  the  exercise  of  those  powers  which  are 
brought  into  play  by  the  cooperation  of  the  finite 
spirit  with  the  Infinite  Spirit.  The  spiritual  life  is 
simply  the  natural  life  lived  in  a  new  way — the 
natural  life  ennobled  and  transformed  by  an  in- 
dwelling divine  Presence.  These  men  look  upon 
the  common  world  itself,  therefore,  as  the  subject 
of  a  nobly  conceived  redemption  to  be  wrought  out 
by  flesh-and-blood  men  acting  in  harmony  with  the 
divine  will.  This  third  view  has  been  gaining  stead- 
ily on  serious,  aspiring  minds  until  now,  in  great 
sections  of  modern  society,  "  there  is  no  longer  any 
sharp  line  of  division  between  sacred  and  secular, 
but  only  a  vaster,  keener  sense  of  right  and  wrong." 
It  ought  to  be  so,  for  when  Jesus  sent  His  servants 
out  to  sow  the  good  seed  of  the  kingdom,  He  said 
to  them,  "  The  field  is  the  world."  The  place  where 
religion  is  to  grow  is  not  some  holy  corner  of  this 
human  life  of  ours,  fenced  off  and  walled  in  from 
the  rest  of  the  common  earth.  The  tired  life  of 
mankind  may  now  and  then  enter  such  quiet  places 
in  order  to  renew  its  strength,  to  wash  itself  clean 
in  fresh  baptisms  of  divine  help,  and  to  feed  upon 
those  forms  of  nourishment  which  come  out  of  the 
unseen,  but  it  lives  its  real  life  out  in  the  open 
where  men  are  buying  and  selling,  employing  and 


258    SOCIAL  MESSAGE   OF  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

being  employed,  struggling,  sinning,  suffering,  and 
dying.  The  field  is  the  world ! 

We  never  plant  a  sequoia-seed  in  a  flower-pot — 
we  plant  it  in  the  bosom  of  mother  earth  where  it 
may  draw  steadily  upon  unmeasured  resources  in 
the  unfolding  of  a  life  which  will  reach  on  through 
the  centuries.  And  we  do  not  willingly  plant  the 
Gospel  of  the  Son  of  God  in  any  narrow  enclosure 
which  leaves  outside  large  fields  of  human  interest; 
the  only  area  which  can  furnish  adequate  material 
for  the  full  expression  of  the  religious  life  is  this 
total  world  of  common  interests.  The  world,  in- 
deed, where  men  sometimes  pray  and  trust  and 
adore,  but  where  they  also  struggle  and  wrestle  to- 
gether from  hard  necessity  in  gaining  their  liveli- 
hoods; where  they  love  and  marry  and  rear  fami- 
lies; where  they  organize  States,  enact  laws,  and 
make  history;  where  they  think  and  write,  study 
and  teach,  organizing  the  common  quest  after  knowl- 
edge into  splendid  institutions — this  big,  powerful, 
complex  thing  called  "  the  world,"  Jesus  said,  is  the 
field  where  the  good  seed  of  religion  is  to  be  put 
down  under  the  surface  and  made  to  grow.  This 
field  alone  is  wide  enough  to  furnish  that  sufficient 
harvest  which  Christ  shall  come  to  reap. 

And  in  the  same  vein  that  seer,  who  caught  a 
vision  of  a  new  heaven  and  a  new  earth  where  right- 


THE   BEST   LINES   OF  APPROACH  259 

eousness  dwelt,  cried  out  in  his  joy,  "  The  tabernacle 
of  God  is  with  men  and  He  will  dwell  with  them." 
With  men!  Not  with  a  few  cloistered  saints  alone 
or  with  some  lonely,  pale-faced  ascetics  living  in  the 
desert  on  locusts  and  wild  honey — all  such,  according 
to  the  word  of  Christ,  are  "  less  than  the  least  in 
the  kingdom  of  God."  The  men  referred  to  in  the 
vision  of  the  seer  are  city  men — men  surrounded 
by  walls  huge  and  high;  live,  active,  efficient  men, 
ceaselessly  engaged  in  serving  Him,  busied  ever  with 
the  great  common  interests  of  a  highly  developed 
life !  These  are  the  men  with  whom  God  makes  His 
home,  according  to  that  noble  vision. 

We  may  say,  then,  that  the  presence  of  God  is 
to  be  found  and  realized,  most  of  all,  in  the  thick 
of  human  affairs.  The  interests  of  busy  men  are  His 
interests;  and  His  abiding  purpose  is  to  bring  their 
thoughts  and  their  ways  into  perfect  harmony  with 
His  thoughts  and  His  ways,  as  He  dwells  with  them 
in  all  this  varied  life.  The  teacher  of  religion  will 
therefore  approach  these  social  problems,  not  as 
something  foreign  to  his  essential  purpose,  but  as 
necessary  elements  of  that  "  world  "  which  God  so 
loved  as  to  give  His  only  begotten  Son  for  its  com* 
plete  redemption. 

It  goes  without  saying  that  the  true  minister  of 
religion  in  approaching  these  vexed  questions  will 


260    SOCIAL  MESSAGE   OF  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

not  do  so  as  a  partisan,  except  in  so  far  as  the  Ten 
Commandments,  the  Golden  Rule,  and  the  Sermon 
on  the  Mount  are  partisan  in  their  insistence  on  a 
higher  righteousness.  The  minister  has  not  enlisted 
to  fight  the  battle  of  the  capitalist  against  the  wage- 
earner,  or  the  battle  of  the  trades-union  against  any 
employers'  association  or  citizens'  alliance — he  is 
fighting  the  battles  of  the  Lord,  whose  purposes  are 
higher  and  vaster  every  way.  He  is  fighting  against 
all  selfishness  and  greed,  against  all  injustice  and 
inhumanity.  His  great  concern  is  to  aid  in  an  ad- 
vance toward  the  point  where  the  work  of  earth  shall 
be  done  "  as  it  is  done  in  heaven,"  as  it  is  done  in 
that  state  of  life  where  right  principles  hold  fast 
and  bear  rule.  In  the  urging  of  these  great  princi- 
ples, I  commend  to  you  the  desirability  of  that  non- 
partisan  habit  of  mind  which  comes  with  "  the  view 
from  above  "  of  the  real  prophet.  And  I  also  com- 
mend to  you  the  desirability  of  that  quality  of  speech 
which  was  finely  attributed  to  a  certain  United  States 
senator  who  died  recently — "  the  eloquence  of  ac- 
curate and  temperate  statement  in  the  discussion  of 
mooted  questions."  It  is  a  form  of  speech  which 
carries  further  and  does  more  execution  in  the  actual 
accomplishment  of  desirable  results  than  the  louder, 
hotter  innuendoes  which  more  readily  command 
head-line  space  and  red  ink  in  the  modern  newspaper. 


THE   BEST   LINES   OF  APPROACH         ,    261 

In  this  whole  effort  at  social  readjustment  it  is  to 
be  remembered  that  neither  political  nor  industrial 
organization  can  be  pushed  far  ahead,  if  they  can 
be  pushed  ahead  at  all,  of  the  intellectual  and  moral 
advance.  External  changes  of  condition  and  organ- 
ization unaccompanied  by  inner  changes  of  disposi- 
tion and  social  efficiency  will  avail  nothing  lasting. 
The  minister,  therefore,  will  be  conscious  that  he  is 
usefully  employed  in  the  solution  of  these  problems 
when  he  is  helping  to  create  the  social  habit  of  mind, 
when  he  is  keeping  sensitive  the  social  conscience 
of  those  to  whom  he  ministers,  and  when  he  is  in- 
creasing that  stock  of  responsible  character  which 
alone  is  competent  to  administer  the  more  equitable 
industrial  arrangements  which  a  wise  benevolence 
may  propose. 

I  believe,  therefore,  the  best  lines  of  approach  for 
the  Christian  pastor  lie  generally  in  the  following 
directions:  In  his  whole  utterance  and  activity  he 
can  exalt  the  spiritual  above  the  material  values 
until,  in  another  sense  than  that  intended  by  the 
prophet  of  old,  he  has  helped  to  "  make  a  man  more 
precious  than  fine  gold  "  through  a  much-needed  re- 
vision of  the  current  quotations.  "  How  much  better 
is  a  man  than  a  sheep  ?  "  Jesus  once  asked,  bringing 
the  human  values  and  the  property  values  before  the 
mind  for  appraisement.  Society  has  never  given  an 


262    SOCIAL  MESSAGE   OF  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

altogether  satisfactory  reply  to  this  radical  question. 
Fine  sheep  are  sometimes  sold  for  five  or  six  thou- 
sand dollars  each,  while  the  value  set  upon  the  hu- 
man lives  of  the  lowly  often  seems  to  be  very  far 
below  that  figure.  But  all  such  mistaken  ratings 
have  the  forces  of  earth  and  sky  against  them — in 
the  long  run  the  human  will  be  seen  in  the  as- 
cendant. No  matter  though  the  sheep,  standing  for 
the  property  interests  of  the  world,  has  advanced  in 
price,  while  in  certain  quarters  human  life  has  de- 
clined until  it  seems  the  cheapest  commodity  to  be 
found,  the  man,  however  he  may  be  circumstanced, 
still  outweighs  the  whole  world  of  material  things, 
even  as  he  did  in  the  days  when  Christ  came  preach- 
ing the  true  standard  of  values. 

The  relatively  low  estimate  put  upon  these  spir- 
itual values  by  many  of  its  earnest  and  popular  ad- 
vocates is  one  of  the  weaknesses  of  modern  social- 
ism. It  has,  of  course,  many  other  limitations  which 
need  only  to  be  named  to  be  recognized  as  serious 
impediments  in  the  way  of  introducing  any  such 
regime  as  that  proposed  by  radical  and  thorough- 
going socialists.  This  movement  has  in  recent  years 
assumed  more  formidable  proportions,  drawing  into 
it,  along  with  a  great  multitude  of  discontented  and 
unsuccessful  people,  many  active  minds  and  earnest 
hearts  genuinely  bent  upon  the  amelioration  of  the 


THE   BEST   LINES   OF  APPROACH  263 

lot  of  their  unhappy  fellows.  Indeed,  the  term 
"  socialism  "  has  come  to  be  used  so  loosely  that 
almost  any  sort  of  effort  at  social  readjustment  is 
liable  to  be  catalogued  under  that  general  head,  and 
almost  any  man  who  would  undertake  to  aid  in  se- 
curing a  more  equitable  distribution  of  the  good 
things  of  life  is  apt  to  be  dubbed,  either  by  the  hos- 
tile or  by  the  sympathetic,  a  "  socialist."  In  my  use 
of  the  term  in  these  lectures,  however,  I  employ  it 
only  in  its  more  limited  and  definite  sense — a  social- 
ist, according  to  the  definitions  authoritatively  an- 
nounced and  currently  accepted  by  the  men  of  this 
economic  faith,  is  one  who  proposes  "  government 
ownership  and  government  control  of  all  the  re- 
sources and  the  machinery  of  production "  as  the 
only  direct  and  effective  means  of  industrial  ameli- 
oration. This  is  socialism,  and  the  rest  of  us,  how- 
ever large-minded  and  benevolently  inclined  we  may 
possibly  be,  are  not  regarded  as  socialists  unless  we 
are  ready  to  advocate  this  economic  programme. 

It  is  altogether  superfluous  to  say  that  with  many 
of  the  abstract  ideals  proclaimed  by  the  socialists, 
I,  along  with  all  other  humane  people,  am  in  most 
hearty  sympathy.  But  I  do  not  follow  with  them 
in  their  advocacy  of  the  economic  programme  put 
forward  as  the  best  method  of  attaining  those  ideals. 
At  the  very  moment  when  my  heart  responds  eagerly 


264    SOCIAL  MESSAGE   OF  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

to  many  of  the  ideals  themselves,  my  sober  economic 
judgment  withholds  its  indorsement  of  the  plan  pro- 
posed for  the  realization  of  them.  The  poetry  of 
socialism  is,  to  a  considerable  extent,  acceptable  to 
all  men  whose  social  sympathies  are  alive  and  active, 
but  the  prose  of  socialism  remains  open  to  serious 
question  at  the  hands  of  discriminating  intelligence 
and  age-long  experience. 

The  whole  movement,  with  all  its  plans  and  pro- 
posals, is  altogether  too  elaborate  for  me  to  under- 
take any  detailed  discussion  of  it  here  within  the 
time  allowed,  but  I  can,  in  a  few  words,  indicate  the 
main  lines  of  my  own  dissent  from  the  position 
taken  by  genuine,  root-and-branch  socialists.  The 
socialist,  as  we  know  him  in  this  country,  has  thus 
far  shown  himself  an  almost  entirely  negative  factor 
in  the  life  of  the  community,  "  shining  mainly  as  a 
pungent  critic  of  the  existing  order  "  rather  than  by 
any  well-assured  ability  in  outlining  the  immediate 
steps  to  be  taken  for  the  introduction  of  that  better 
order  which  would  more  perfectly  secure  the  well- 
being  of  the  many. 

In  some  of  its  forms  socialism  seems  like  a  be- 
lated bit  of  asceticism.  The  old  asceticism  claimed 
that  personal  freedom,  the  intimacy  of  the  sexes,  and 
the  desire  for  gain  were  all  productive  of  evil — it 
therefore  undertook  to  destroy,  in  the  lives  of  ac- 


THE  BEST   LINES   OF  APPROACH  265 

credited  saints,  all  these  sources  of  evil  and  all  the 
hurtful  influences  which  attached  to  them,  by  its 
vows  of  celibacy,  poverty,  and  obedience  to  an  order, 
thus  protecting  its  own  devotees  under  the  shelter 
of  the  cloister.  This  new  asceticism  sees  truly  that 
private  property  is  oftentimes  productive  of  greed, 
of  oppression,  and  of  divers  social  wrongs;  it  feels 
unwilling  to  incur  the  risk  involved  in  private  owner- 
ship as  we  know  it  to-day;  it  would  therefore  un- 
dertake virtually  to  abolish  the  potent  influence  of 
private  property  by  merging  individual  ownership 
of  all  the  resources  and  machinery  of  production  in 
the  state.  The  strong  impulse  toward  useful  activ- 
ity which  springs  from  the  hope  of  gain,  liable  as 
that  impulse  is  to  serious  abuse,  would  be  quite  re- 
moved by  this  plan,  and  the  consequent  loss  of  in- 
centive would  be  so  considerable  as  to  make  the 
proposition  seem  to  many  of  us  like  another  case  of 
burning  the  barn  to  get  rid  of  the  rats. 

The  socialist  seems  also  to  impose  altogether  too 
heavy  a  load  upon  a  single  institution,  the  state,  dis- 
regarding too  much  the  great  functions  of  the  family, 
the  school,  the  church,  and  the  voluntary  associa- 
tion of  men  in  industrial  effort.  The  degree  to 
which  the  function  of  the  state  in  the  administration 
of  certain  public  utilities  may  be  profitably  enlarged 
is  a  question  for  economists  and  statesmen.  It  will 


266    SOCIAL  MESSAGE  OF  THE  MODERN  PULPIT 

be  settled  finally,  not  by  oratory,  or  by  sentiment, 
or  by  Scripture  texts,  but  by  instructive  experience. 
The  state  is  now  only  fairly  successful  in  the  carry- 
ing and  distribution  of  the  mails,  a  comparatively 
simple  matter,  for  all  the  men  on  my  street  and  all 
the  people  of  the  city  and  of  other  cities  want  their 
mails  carried  just  as  I  want  mine — safely  and 
promptly.  But  if  it  were  a  question  of  the  state 
undertaking  to  manufacture  profitably  and  to  dis- 
tribute satisfactorily  spring  bonnets,  for  example, 
to  meet  the  wants  of  the  respective  wives  of  all  these 
men,  or  of  proving  itself  efficient  in  providing  all 
the  ten  thousand  things  where  taste  and  habit  differ 
so  widely,  as  it  would  be  required  to  do  under  a 
system  where  "  government  ownership  and  govern- 
ment control  of  all  the  resources  and  machinery  of 
production "  obtained,  it  might  not  find  itself  so 
readily  adequate  to  the  task.  It  is  this  vaster  duty 
which  socialists  seem  so  ready  to  lay  upon  a  state 
which  should  own  and  operate  all  the  resources  and 
machinery  of  production.  The  socialist  seems  en- 
tirely too  willing  to  say  to  the  many  unprofitable 
servants  who  somehow  get  into  office — some  of  them 
unprofitable  from  lack  of  ability  and  some  from  lack 
of  honesty — "  You  have  been  unfaithful  over  the  few 
things  you  have  heretofore  controlled;  we  will  make 
you  rulers  over  everything." 


THE  BEST  LINES  OF  APPROACH  267 

Personally  I  do  not  believe  that  private  owner- 
ship of  the  means  of  production  will  disappear  or 
that  it  ought  to  disappear.  I  do  not  believe  that  all 
competition  will  cease,  or  that  it  could  entirely 
cease,  without  a  loss  of  incentive  to  effort  which  we 
are  not  ready  to  incur.  I  do  not  believe  that  su- 
perior personal  endowment  and  untiring  industry 
will  cease  to  command  a  reward  altogether  excep- 
tional— I  think  it  is  best  that  they  should  command 
such  a  reward.  The  exceptional  returns  now  offered 
put  a  premium  upon  and  effectively  stimulate  the 
production  of  those  useful  qualities  in  the  lives  of 
many  who  might  not  show  themselves  responsive  to 
any  other  form  of  motive.  The  industrial  forces 
here  suggested  have  caused  many  to  "  offend " ; 
they  have  been  turned  oftentimes  by  unscrupulous 
strength  against  unprotected  weakness  in  ways  full 
of  harm.  But  they  will  not,  in  my  judgment,  on 
that  account  be  "  cut  off  "  so  that  we  may  "  enter 
maimed  "  into  such  a  life  as  the  socialistic  regime 
might  be  able  to  offer.  I  believe  rather  that  they 
will  be  caught  and  held  within  the  power  of  a 
mightier  and  more  extended  consecration,  so  that  we 
may  at  last  enter  into  life  not  maimed,  but  full  and 
complete,  with  all  our  powers  retained  and  devoted 
to  those  higher  uses  for  which  they  were  created. 

The  people  of  the  United  States  especially  have 


268    SOCIAL  MESSAGE  OP  THE  MODERN   PULPIT 

shown  such  an  invincible  preference  for  personal 
freedom,  and  for  the  exercise  of  individual  initia- 
tive, that  they  will  always  be  reluctant  to  fall  into 
any  root-and-branch  socialistic  scheme  which  would 
so  largely  eliminate  that  dominant  characteristic  of 
the  national  life.  The  spirit  of  "  scientific  social- 
ism "  is,  indeed,  too  mechanical  to  meet  with  ac- 
ceptance from  the  freer  and  braver  spirits  of  any 
country.  It  seems  like  an  attempt  to  freeze  people 
into  a  living  and  organic  unity  by  the  clear  cold  of 
a  certain  rigid  economic  system,  held  quite  apart 
from  the  other  vital  forces  which  have  to  do  with 
individual  and  social  progress. 

The  minister  of  religion,  laying  as  he  does  strong 
emphasis  upon  the  spiritual  elements  involved  in  the 
industrial  struggle,  feels  also  the  incompleteness  of 
"  the  economic  interpretation  of  history,"  of  which 
so  much  is  made  by  those  socialistic  writers  who 
preach  steadily  from  the  text  "  the  want  of  money 
is  the  root  of  all  evil."  They  seem  to  be  'quite  un- 
aware of  the  fact  that  neither  these  words,  nor  the 
idea  expressed  in  them,  have  ever  gained  standing 
in  the  accepted  Scripture  of  thoughtful  men.  Eco- 
nomic conditions  have,  as  I  have  tried  to  indicate 
in  these  lectures,  entered  powerfully  into  the  deter- 
mination of  the  quality  and  the  direction  of  the  life 
of  many  nations,  but  when  all  has  been  said,  the  fact 


THE  BEST   LINES   OF  APPROACH  269 

still  stands  that  the  truly  sovereign  forces  of  history 
have  not  been  material  but  spiritual.  The  great 
deeds  have  been  done,  the  great  songs  have  been 
sung,  the  great  pictures  have  been  spread  upon  can- 
vas, the  great  productive  eras  have  been  brought 
in,  and  the  great  movements  have  been  set  on  foot, 
not  for  pay  nor  through  economic  interest,  but  be- 
cause of  the  prevalence  of  certain  spiritual  ideals 
which  for  the  hour  had  become  supreme.  Therefore, 
the  renunciation  of  all  alliance  with  spiritual  forces 
and  the  uninstructed  readiness  to  stake  their  all 
upon  forces  purely  economic  on  the  part  of  many 
of  the  poor,  the  weak,  the  unfortunate  of  society, 
under  this  mistaken  leadership,  is  one  of  the  blindest 
of  all  blind  movements  into  which  unthinking  people 
have  been  led. 

In  like  manner  the  true  prophet  will  make  plain 
to  those  who  feel  that  the  push  of  unregulated  self- 
interest  can  be  safely  intrusted  with  the  world's 
progress  the  fundamental  error  of  their  contention. 
Buds  and  brutes  may  be  guided  solely  by  the  push 
of  self-interest,  crowding  out  their  less  fortunate  fel- 
lows as  it  may  serve  their  turn,  but  men  possessed 
of  reason  and  conscience  have  both  the  ability  and 
the  disposition  to  help  one  another — qualities  which 
are  to  be  manifested  increasingly  under  the  pressure 
of  an  ever-deepening  sense  of  social  responsibility. 


270    SOCIAL   MESSAGE   OF  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

This  quality  of  neighborliness  is  not  in  any  sense 
an  economic  force — it  is  spiritual  and  it  is  of  God. 
It  is  a  force  already  powerful,  which  must  be  con- 
stantly taken  into  account  by  those  who  would  fore- 
cast the  future  of  society. 

The  world  is  so  made  that  the  way  of  inconsid- 
erate and  unregulated  self-interest  is  hard,  and  it 
is  destined  to  grow  harder  with  the  growing  sense 
of  social  obligation.  Those  men  who,  in  their  self- 
ish exploitation  of  valuable  resources  and  in  their 
narrow  indifference  to  the  wider  interests  involved, 
are  saying,  "  The  public  be  damned,"  will  find  that 
the  stars  in  their  courses  are  fighting  against  them. 
In  the  outcome,  they  can  hope  for  no  happier  fate 
than  that  of  Sisera.  With  the  same  measure  they 
mete  to  others  it  will  be  measured  to  them  again, 
for  there  is  a  rising  tide  of  public  sentiment,  as  well 
as  a  God  in  Israel,  neither  of  which  will  permanently 
tolerate  human  swinishness.  Men  who  propose  to 
build  buildings  which  will  stand  up  and  not  fall 
down  must  build  them,  whether  they  like  it  or  not, 
with  due  regard  for  the  law  of  gravitation.  And 
men  who  would  rear  for  themselves  any  stable  pros- 
perity must  likewise  reckon  with  that  law  of  moral 
solidarity  which  is  equally  universal  and  insistent. 

The  minister  of  Christ  will  also  render  useful  ser- 
yioe  by  aiding  in  the  growth  of  an  intelligent  good- 


THE   BEST   LINES   OF  APPROACH  271 

will  thoroughly  instructed  as  to  the  wide  reach  of 
its  standing  obligations  and  capable  of  being  carried 
into  all  the  relations  of  every-day  life.  It  has  been 
said  that  all  the  people  in  the  world  could  live  in 
the  State  of  Texas,  if  they  were  only  friends.  This 
may  be  a  slight  exaggeration  as  to  the  possible  re- 
sources of  that  one  State,  but  it  makes  plain  the 
fact  that  the  main  barrier  in  the  way  of  realizing 
universal  well-being  is  not  so  much  paucity  of  re- 
source or  scarcity  in  actual  production,  as  the  lack 
of  right  spirit  in  the  work  of  distribution.  Men  of 
intelligent  good-will  could  operate  almost  any  form 
of  industrial  organization  within  reason  and  render 
it  acceptable  to  all  hands — at  least  to  all  right- 
minded  and  industrious  hands.  And,  conversely,  it 
would  be  almost  impossible  to  devise  any  political 
or  commercial  regime  whatsoever,  where  the  shrewd, 
the  strong,  and  the  unscrupulous  would  not  be  able, 
if  they  chose,  wantonly  to  take  advantage  of  the 
dull  and  the  weak.  So  long  as  the  spirit  of  any 
society  is  "  Each  man  for  himself  and  the  devil  take 
the  hindmost,"  so  long  the  stronger  dogs  will  get 
the  best  bones  and  the  other  dogs  will  stand  by 
hungrily  licking  their  chops,  waiting  their  chance 
to  take  what  is  left.  In  saying  this  I  am  not  un- 
mindful of  the  possible  benefit  of  certain  economic 
readjustments,  but  aa  ministers  of  religion  our  more 


272    SOCIAL  MESSAGE   OF  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

fundamental  concern  is  with  that  nobler  spirit  which 
will  inhabit  and  control  the  political  body  and  which 
alone  will  be  found  competent  to  give  shape  to  a 
higher  type  of  industrial  organization. 

We  certainly  have  a  serious  duty  to  perform,  as 
ministers  of  Jesus  Christ,  so  long  as  there  remains 
such  a  glaring  difference  between  the  social  ideals 
professed  in  the  worship  of  Sunday,  and  those  ideals 
actually  pursued  in  the  business  of  Monday.  Hear 
these  words  from  a  thoughtful  discussion,  by  one  of 
their  number,  of  the  present  attitude  of  the  work- 
ing-men of  our  country  to  the  Christian  churches. 
"  The  complaint  made  by  American  working-men 
against  the  churches  is  that  they  have  failed  to  suf- 
ficiently influence  conduct;  they  have  failed  to  ade- 
quately impress  their  fundamental  principles  upon 
those  who  give  direction  to  the  practical  affairs  of 
life  in  the  counting-room,  in  legislative  halls,  and 
on  the  bench,  although  these  men  profess  Christian- 
ity. Laboring  men  do  not  feel  that  it  is  better  for 
them  to  work  for  a  Christian  than  for  one  who  de- 
nies the  obligations  of  Christianity — the  outcome  of 
experience  has  not  taught  them  that  such  is  the  case. 
They  do  not  believe  that  church  membership  on  the 
part  of  their  landlord  insures  just  and  considerate 
treatment  for  his  tenants.  They  do  not  flock  to 
merchants  who  acknowledge  Christ  as  their  Master, 


THE   BEST   LINES   OF  APPROACH  273 

in  confidence  that  they  will,  merely  on  that  account, 
receive  of  them  honest  goods  for  a  fair  price.  They 
do  not  rejoice  when  they  learn  that  a  railway  mag- 
nate, in  whose  employ  thousands  of  their  number 
stand,  is  regularly  attending  an  orthodox  church." 
The  very  fact  that  such  a  charge  can  be  brought 
against  the  churches  of  the  land,  and  the  further 
fact  that  over  such  wide  areas  of  the  busy  world 
the  charge  can  be  so  well  sustained  by  evidence  as 
to  the  truth  of  it,  lays  upon  our  hearts  afresh  the 
obligation  of  urging  the  expression  of  intelligent 
good-will  in  every-day  life  as  a  fundamental  require- 
ment in  Christian  character. 

The  capitalist,  who  regards  his  right  to  purchase 
labor  in  the  cheapest  market  available,  regardless 
of  consequences,  as  being  altogether  sacred,  and 
who  conducts  his  business  in  such  a  way  as  to  breed 
discontent  and  the  spirit  of  rebellion  among  his 
employes,  is  himself  furnishing  the  gunpowder  which 
is  liable  to  blow  him  and  his  prosperity  into  the 
air.  The  open  disregard  for  men  as  men,  because 
they  happen  to  stand  in  the  class  of  manual  toilers, 
which  is  displayed  in  certain  quarters  of  modern 
industry,  has  destroyed  much  of  the  good-will  which 
is  our  main  reliance  for  peace  and  progress.  In 
some  sections  of  our  country  certain  employers  of 
labor,  themselves  habitual  worshippers  in  the  church 


274    SOCIAL  MESSAGE   OF  THE  MODERN   PULPIT 

of  Christ  are,  nevertheless,  through  the  unhalting, 
unpitying  operation  of  their  mills,  seven  days  in  the 
week,  sowing  the  seeds  of  lawlessness  and  anarchy 
by  their  desecration  of  that  day  sacred  to  the  culti- 
vation of  moral  sanity  and  of  neighborly  good-will, 
as  well  as  to  the  securing  of  physical  rest  and  recrea- 
tion for  all  the  weary  toilers  of  earth.  In  the  face 
of  all  this  transgression  of  the  law  of  Christ,  it 
becomes  the  solemn  duty  of  the  minister  of  Jesus 
Christ  to  make  plain  how  much  is  involved  in  our 
praying  "  Thy  kingdom  come,"  and  what  is  the 
definite  content  of  a  pious  wish  that  the  divine  will 
may  "  be  done  on  earth  as  it  is  done  in  heaven." 

The  minister  can  also  aid  mightily  in  shaping  pub- 
lic opinion.  In  the  last  analysis  our  government 
is  a  government  by  public  opinion,  and  the  world 
of  business  is  keenly  sensitive  to  changes  and  move- 
ments in  the  popular  mind.  Public  opinion  under 
the  feudal  system  was  once  so  negligent  of  the  in- 
terests of  the  serfs  as  to  accord  the  baron  the  right 
to  practise  such  frightful  cruelties  upon  his  helpless 
dependents  as  would  almost  stagger  our  modern  be- 
lief. We  have  long  since  advanced  beyond  such 
wanton  disregard  for  the  rights  of  others,  but  there 
still  remains  much  land  to  be  possessed  by  a  more 
resolute  public  opinion  which  shall  make  equally 
infamous  some  of  the  practices  of  these  modern 


THE   BEST   LINES   OF  APPROACH  275 

barons.  The  reluctance  of  many  corporations  to 
adopt  all  possible  precautions  against  accidents,  the 
unwillingness  of  many  railroads  and  factories  to 
safeguard  the  lives  of  employes  with  all  the  appli- 
ances which  intelligence  and  experience  may  pro- 
vide, until  they  are  driven  to  it  by  law,  the  miserli- 
ness shown  by  certain  employers  in  failing  to  make 
any  adequate  provision  for  the  maintenance  of 
health,  modesty,  and  the  finer  sensibilities  on  the 
part  of  female  employees,  must  all  come  in  for  con- 
demnation at  the  hands  of  a  more  enlightened  and 
more  insistent  public  opinion.  This  sentiment  when 
fully  developed  will  declare  itself  in  a  higher  sense 
of  business  honor,  in  more  wisely  framed  and  more 
rigidly  enforced  laws  touching  the  abuses  named, 
and  in  a  more  conscientious  giving  or  withholding 
of  that  common  esteem  which  reputable  business 
men  are  not  ready  to  forego. 

This  more  enlightened  and  insistent  good-will  is 
entirely  consistent  with  material  enrichment — in- 
deed, in  the  long  run  it  is  an  essential  element  in 
a  genuine  prosperity.  Jacob  Riis  has  shown  re- 
peatedly from  his  accumulation  of  experience  at  first 
hand  that  the  love  of  one's  fellows  and  five-per-cent 
profit  on  tenement-house  property  in  Xew  York  can 
live  together  in  peace  and  harmony.  Alas,  that 
man's  greed  so  often  puts  asunder  what  God  in  His 


276    SOCIAL  MESSAGE  OF  THE  MODERN   PULPIT 

wise  purpose  has  joined  together!  Some  years  ago 
George  Peabody  invested  two  and  a  half  millions  in 
providing  decent  tenements  for  the  poorer  people  of 
London.  It  does  not  seem  a  large  sum  with  our  cur- 
rent standards  of  expenditure  and  benevolence,  yet 
twenty  thousand  people  have  pleasant  and  healthful 
homes  at  rents  which  they  are  able  to  pay,  as  a 
result  of  that  one  investment;  and  the  capital  has 
already  doubled  itself,  thus  doubling  the  resources 
of  the  trustees  who  have  charge  of  that  effort  for 
the  normal  housing  of  the  poor.  When  once  this 
"  good-will  on  earth,"  which  was  the  main  theme 
of  the  angels'  song  at  the  ushering  in  of  the  Chris- 
tian dispensation,  shall  overshadow  the  selfish  greed 
which  has  too  long  usurped  its  place,  then  the  king- 
dom of  heaven  will  come  with  power  and  great 
glory! 

The  minister  will  also  insist  steadily  that  there  is 
a  will  of  God  in  all  these  matters  of  common  inter- 
est, to  be  discovered,  to  be  obeyed,  to  be  realized, 
in  the  organized  life  of  men.  When  the  Israelites 
entered  in  and  took  possession  of  the  land  of  Canaan, 
they  made  a  determined  attempt  to  adjust  their  eco- 
nomic arrangements  in  accordance  with  this  high 
ideal  in  the  division  of  that  land.  The  effort  to  as- 
certain the  will  of  God  was  made  according  to  the 
customs  of  the  countrv  and  the  current  belief  at  that 


THE   BEST  LINES   OF  APPROACH  277 

early  time — they  sought  to  eliminate  the  element 
of  human  greed  and  of  human  preference  by  cast- 
ing lots.  Their  leader  Joshua  assembled  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  tribes  at  Shiloh  before  the  ark  of 
Jehovah,  and  there,  in  the  presence  of  what  was  to 
them  the  earthly  residence  of  their  Deity,  they 
prayed  and  cast  lots  to  determine,  according  to  what 
they  accepted  as  a  revelation  of  the  divine  will,  the 
distribution  of  the  land  which  the  Lord  their  God 
had  given  them. 

However  imperfect,  however  superstitious  or  even 
whimsical  the  method  they  used  in  seeking  to  know 
the  mind  of  God  in  the  matter,  how  much  it  means 
that  the  chosen  people  in  that  rude  period  of  the 
world's  history  did  not  undertake  to  divide  up  the 
common  wealth  by  force,  the  strong  taking  the  best 
of  it  because  they  were  strong,  leaving  the  frag- 
ments to  the  weak!  How  much  it  means  that  they 
did  not  divide  it  up  solely  by  the  power  of  purchase, 
those  who  had  the  longest  purses  taking  the  choicest 
sites,  leaving  to  the  poor  the  less  desirable  tracts! 
They  sincerely  tried,  as  best  they  knew,  to  ascertain 
the  divine  will  in  the  matter  and  to  divide  up  the 
land  according  to  that  ascertained  will.  It  was  a 
splendid  ideal,  however  imperfectly  they  may  have 
worked  it  out. 

God  cares  about  this  distribution  of  goods  which 


278 

goes  on,  equitably  or  inequitably,  under  His  great 
eye.  God  cares  about  these  inequalities  of  condi- 
tion among  His  children,  so  glaring  oftentimes  as  to 
be  cruel.  God  cares  that  the  weak  are  here  and 
there  thrust  aside  by  the  shrewd  and  the  strong,  and 
thus  defeated  in  the  dearest  and  noblest  desires  of 
their  disappointed  hearts.  There  is  a  will  of  God 
concerning  all  these  questions  as  to  wages  and 
hours,  as  to  the  appropriation  of  land  and  of  mines, 
as  to  the  enjoyment  of  luxury  or  the  suffering  of 
penury.  And  our  own  commonwealth  will  never 
measure  up  to  its  full  moral  dignity,  it  will  never 
attain  that  full  degree  of  stable  prosperity,  where 
each  family  shall  sit  beneath  its  own  vine  and  fig- 
tree,  until,  in  ways  appropriate  to  our  day,  wise  and 
good  men  are  equally  intent  upon  knowing  the  will 
of  God  touching  all  these  interests,  and  of  obeying 
that  will  in  the  current  distribution  of  the  goods 
of  life. 

The  great  problem  of  society  is  not  now  one  of 
production  but  one  of  distribution.  In  the  hard 
times,  when  thousands  of  people  are  hungry  and  cold 
and  in  rags,  there  is  food  enough  and  fuel  enough 
and  clothing  enough  to  make  them  all  comfortable 
— the  trouble  is  they  have  not  the  means  at  hand 
to  purchase  what  they  need.  During  the  famine  in 
India,  whole  ship-loads  of  wheat  were  sent  from 


THE   BEST   LINES   OF  APPROACH  279 

India,  which  was  starving,  to  England,  which  was 
comparatively  well  fed — the  well-fed  people  of  Eng- 
land had  money  to  buy  the  wheat,  the  starving 
people  of  India  had  not.  The  City  of  New  York  is 
the  richest  city  in  the  world — you  are  bewildered 
when  you  read  of  the  wealth  in  its  banks;  you  are 
amazed  when  you  go  to  its  costly  hotels  or  restau- 
rants and  see  people  being  dined  and  wined  in  showy 
extravagance ;  you  are  startled  when  you  witness  the 
scale  of  living  at  its  clubs  and  in  the  homes  along 
Fifth  Avenue;  you  are  astonished  when  you  look 
upon  the  signs  of  splendid  prosperity  among  the  wor- 
shippers in  its  well-to-do  churches.  It  is  the  richest 
city  on  the  globe!  And  yet,  in  the  year  1903,  sixty 
thousand  four  hundred  and  forty-three  families  in 
New  York  City,  one-fourteenth  of  the  whole  popu- 
lation, were  evicted  for  non-payment  of  rent !  Some 
of  them  were  scamps  trying  to  take  an  unfair  ad- 
vantage of  their  landlords,  but  the  great  mass  of 
them  were  people  who  were  simply  too  poor  to  pay 
for  a  place  to  lay  their  heads,  and  so  they  suffered 
the  indignity  of  being  put  out  into  the  street  to 
await  the  coming  of  some  charitable  agency  for  their 
relief.  And  in  the  year  1902,  according  to  the 
"  Report  of  the  Department  of  Corrections,"  quoted 
in  Robert  Hunter's  "  Poverty,"  one-tenth  of  all  the 
people  buried  from  the  city  of  New  York  were 


280    SOCIAL  MESSAGE   OF  THE  MODERN  PULPIT 

buried  at  public  expense  in  the  potter's  field!  You 
all  know  how  the  poorest  of  the  poor  shrink  from 
such  a  fate  as  that  for  their  dear  dead,  making  un- 
told struggles  and  sacrifices  to  avert  it,  and  the  fact 
that  one-tenth  of  all  who  died  were  thus  carted  off 
to  the  potter's  field  gives  indication  of  the  great 
and  sore  poverty  in  that  richest  city  of  earth. 
Plenty  for  all,  yet  the  work  of  distribution  so  badly 
done  that  this  crying  want  exists  even  in  prosper- 
ous times!  Surely  we  have  not  yet  realized  the 
will  of  God  in  our  division  of  this  rich  land  of 
promise. 

The  realization  of  this  divine  purpose  regarding 
our  use  of  the  material  resources  which  God  has 
here  placed  at  the  call  of  energy  and  intelligence, 
will  not  come  solely  or  mainly  by  the  practice  of 
a  more  generous  benevolence  when  once  the  goods 
have  been  accumulated — it  will  come  rather  by  the 
introduction  into  the  process  of  accumulation  itself, 
of  a  deeper  sense  of  social  obligation  to  all  those 
whose  interests  are  bound  up  with  our  own  in  that 
enterprise,  and  by  the  infusion  of  a  finer  spirit  of 
neighborly  regard  into  the  mode  of  ministering  to 
their  life.  This  point  has  been  clearly  stated  by 
one  who  has  made  us  all  his  debtors  through  his 
many  wise  and  just  words  regarding  the  social  prob- 
lems now  before  us.  "  I  do  not  believe  that  any 


THE   BEST   LINES   OF  APPROACH  281 

more  charitable,  any  more  divine  use  of  money  can 
be  thought  of  than  that  which  is  involved  in  the 
furnishing  of  honest  and  healthful  work,  and  in  the 
manifestation,  through  the  friendships  which  asso- 
ciation in  work  makes  possible,  of  the  true  spirit 
of  brotherly  love.  The  man  who  can  gather  men 
about  him  in  some  productive  industry  and  can  thus 
enable  them  by  their  own  labor  to  earn  a  decent 
livelihood,  and  can  fill  all  his  relations  with  them 
with  the  spirit  of  Christ,  making  it  plain  to  them 
that  he  is  studying  to  befriend  them  and  help  them 
in  every  possible  way,  is  doing  quite  as  much,  I 
think,  to  realize  God's  purpose  with  respect  to  prop- 
erty and  to  bring  heaven  to  earth,  as  if  he  were 
founding  an  asylum  or  endowing  a  tract  society." 
These  words  are  quoted  from  Dr.  Washington  Glad- 
den's  little  book,  "  Ruling  Ideas  of  the  Present  Age," 
and  they  point  out  clearly  a  line  of  social  service 
which  ought  to  enlist  a  still  larger  section  of  the 
commercial  enterprise,  brain  power,  and  moral  en- 
ergy of  our  American  business  men.  The  utiliza- 
tion of  special  executive  ability  and  the  administra- 
tion of  large  property  interests  by  some  man  of 
means  in  such  a  way  that  the  industrial  enterprises 
under  his  control  are,  in  all  the  ramifications  of 
their  influence,  socially  helpful  and  not  socially  hurt- 
ful, thus  becomes  one  of  the  highest  forms  of  useful 


282    SOCIAL  MESSAGE   OF  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

service  which  can  be  rendered  to  any  community. 
There  are  those  who  do  well  at  the  call  of  Christ 
to  "  leave  all  and  follow  him,"  and  there  are  many 
others,  appointed  to  a  different  form  of  service,  who 
also  do  well  to  retain  their  possessions,  as  did  those 
men  in  the  parables  of  Christ,  to  whom  both  talents 
and  pounds  were  committed,  and  to  "  follow  him  " 
by  utilizing  those  possessions  with  such  wisdom  and 
fidelity  as  to  increase  the  well-being  of  entire  com- 
munities. 

We  are  still  compelled  to  walk,  as  did  those  an- 
cient Israelites,  by  faith.  Long  before  they  had 
completely  conquered  it,  they  divided  up  the  land, 
according  to  what  they  believed  to  be  the  divine  will, 
in  anticipation.  When  the  scene  which  I  have  de- 
scribed took  place,  the  mountain  set  off  to  sturdy 
Caleb  was  still  held  by  the  sons  of  Anak;  a  large 
part  of  Simeon's  territory  was  still  controlled  by  the 
Philistines!  As  Joshua  said,  there  remained  all 
about  them  much  land  to  be  possessed.  But  with 
faith  in  God  that  these  splendid  ideals  of  theirs 
could  be  worked  out  through  His  Almighty  aid, 
they  met  at  Shiloh  and  parcelled  out  that  very  soil 
still  so  largely  under  the  control  of  the  enemy. 
"This  is  Judah's;  this  is  Asher's;  this  is  Simeon's; 
and  this  is  Benjamin's,"  they  said,  even  while  the 
Amorites,  the  Jebusites,  and  the  Hittites  were  in 


THE   BEST   LINES   OF  APPROACH  283 

open  possession!  The  division  made  was  the  an- 
nouncement in  faith  of  certain  high  ideals  which 
under  God's  guidance  they  proposed  to  realize  by 
the  long  and  patient  struggle  which  followed. 

Alas  for  the  dull-eyed,  humdrum  people  whose 
aspirations  never  get  a  rod  in  advance  of  their  pres- 
ent achievements !  Unless  we  perpetually  see  visions 
and  dream  dreams,  we  shall  never  have  the  moral 
vigor,  the  spiritual  insight,  the  noble  effectiveness 
necessary  for  winning  a  land  of  promise.  It  is  what 
we  see  by  the  eye  of  faith  and  confidently  wait  for 
that  kindles  our  hearts  to  undertake  the  higher  tasks 
in  life.  If  we  only  computed  what  can  already  be 
measured  off  by  the  surveyor's  chain  or  weighed 
upon  the  hay  scales,  making  no  allowance  for  those 
hidden  and  supernatural  forces  which  are  cease- 
lessly at  work  around  us  and  within  us,  we  should 
fail  utterly.  It  was  one  of  the  evidences  that  these 
Israelites  were  a  chosen  and  inspired  people  that 
their  plans  reached  out  into  a  hoped-for  but  unreal- 
ized future,  when  they  divided  up  great  stretches 
of  country  still  in  the  hands  of  their  foes. 

It  is  for  modern  prophets,  then,  to  make  it  plain 
that  there  is  a  will  of  God  in  regard  to  these  alluring 
social  ideals  which  are  being  held  before  men  of 
aspiration,  and  that  the  strength  of  His  Almighty 
arm  is  pledged  to  the  realization  of  those  ideals 


284    SOCIAL  MESSAGE   OF  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

when  once  the  hearts  of  His  people  are  strongly  set 
upon  their  attainment.  It  is  for  these  modern 
prophets  to  aid  in  still  further  developing  that  spirit 
of  humanity  which,  awakening  from  its  selfish,  riot- 
ous life,  is  saying  with  a  force  and  meaning  hitherto 
imperfectly  appreciated,  "  In  our  Father's  house 
there  is  bread  enough  and  to  spare,  and  yet  many 
perish  with  preventable  hunger."  The  real  prob- 
lem is  one  of  distribution,  and  when  once  the  spirit 
of  society  shall  "  come  to  itself  "  it  will,  in  the  more 
equitable  methods  of  its  operation,  hasten  the  re- 
turn of  multitudes  from  "  the  far  country  "  of  physi- 
cal want  and  moral  degradation. 

And  once  more  the  minister  will  disclose  to  his 
people  those  deeper  sources  of  motive  for  social  ef- 
fort. These  do  not  lie,  in  my  opinion,  chiefly  in  the 
gratitude  and  esteem  of  men,  or  in  those  glowing 
promises  of  reward  in  the  life  to  come,  but  rather 
in  an  enlarged  sense  of  the  abiding  worth  of  human 
nature  itself  as  authoritatively  declared  in  the  great 
fact  of  the  Incarnation — a  truth  whose  social  impli- 
cations are  as  yet  but  dimly  recognized;  and  also  in 
the  reenforcement  of  the  sympathetic  impulses  by 
vast  additions  of  knowledge  regarding  the  full  bear- 
ing of  our  actions,  until  at  last  the  highest  reason 
and  the  warmest  generosity  shall  join  hands  in  an 
invincible  alliance. 


THE   BEST   LINES   OF  APPROACH  285 

The  strongest  motive  for  personal  righteousness, 
it  seems  to  me?  is  social  in  its  nature — it  is  that  one 
named  in  the  great  word  of  Christ  uttered  in  the 
Garden  of  Gethsemane :  "  For  their  sakes,  I  sanc- 
tify myself."  Here  He  was  on  the  night  He  was 
betrayed,  walking  among  the  olive-trees,  where  the 
shadow  of  the  cross  lay  upon  His  pathway.  The  be- 
trayer had  withdrawn  from  the  company  of  disciples 
and  was  yonder  plotting  against  his  Master  in  the 
dark.  And  here  at  last  the  Lord  of  the  ages  knelt 
in  prayer,  pouring  out  mind  and  heart  to  One  who 
understood  the  strange  significance  of  all  those 
events  which  were  crowded  into  that  wonderful 
week.  "  Father,  the  hour  is  come.  I  have  finished 
the  work  thou  gavest  me  to  do.  I  have  given  them 
the  words  thou  gavest  me.  For  their  sakes,  I  sanc- 
tify myself,  that  they  also  may  be  sanctified  through 
the  truth."  There  was  the  motive  underlying  it  all 
— He  found  the  supreme  demand  for  His  own  right- 
eous, useful,  redemptive  life  in  that  great  fact  of 
human  need.  For  their  sakes ! 

It  is  a  motive  which  holds  where  other  motives 
fail.  When  righteousness  no  longer  seems  worth 
while  on  grounds  of  personal  prudence,  the  fact 
stands  that  this  ignorant,  sinful,  suffering  world 
needs  upright  and  serviceable  men  in  it  more  than 
it  needs  aught  else  under  heaven.  For  its  sake,  then, 


286    SOCIAL  MESSAGE  OF  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

I  will  do  my  utmost  to  furnish  it  one  more  such  life. 
It  is  a  motive  which  offers  the  strongest  deterrent 
against  the  common  vices,  for  no  one  perishes  alone 
in  his  iniquity — of  necessity  he  drags  down  others 
with  him  from  the  higher  levels  of  peace  and  joy 
where  they  might  have  walked.  "  For  their  sakes," 
the  sorely  tempted  man  says  to  himself,  "  I  will  live 
a  clean  life !  "  It  is  the  strongest  incitement  to  use- 
ful service,  for  the  consciousness  of  having  made 
genuine  contribution  to  the  well-being  of  one's  fel- 
lows by  noble  living  transcends  all  those  satisfac- 
tions which  are  only  personal  in  their  range.  "  For 
their  sakes,  I  consecrate  myself " — it  uncovers  a 
source  of  motive  which  is  like  a  well  of  water  spring- 
ing up  into  everlasting  life! 

You  have  noticed  in  the  Lord's  Prayer  that  the 
words  "  I  "  and  "  my  "  and  "  me  "  nowhere  occur. 
The  individual  considering  himself  and  praying  for 
himself,  all  apart  from  any  sympathetic  interest  in 
others,  never  has  a  chance  to  be  heard  in  that  ideal 
prayer:  "  Our  Father."  "  Give  us  this  day  our 
daily  bread."  "  Forgive  us,  lead  us  and  deliver  us" 
It  is  the  utterance  of  a  warm,  sympathetic,  prayer- 
ful heart  looking  out  and  looking  up,  strongly  pos- 
sessed with  the  desire  to  help.  The  petitioner  casts 
in  his  own  need  with  the  rest,  seeking  to  gain  his 
individual  help  through  the  service  he  renders  to 


THE   BEST   LINES   OF  APPROACH  287 

all  those  whose  needs  are  contemplated  in  the  social 
terms  of  this  incomparable  prayer. 

Here  we  stand,  ten  of  us,  we  will  say,  climbing 
the  rugged  face  of  a  glacier  or  some  steep  snow 
field,  on  our  way  to  the  top  of  an  Alpine  peak. 
Knowing  the  danger,  the  guides  have  roped  us  to- 
gether. We  are  all  members  one  of  another  in  a 
most  vital  sense.  It  brings  a  feeling  of  security. 
Each  man  is  conscious  that  he  is  not  left  entirely 
alone  to  recover  himself  hastily  from  the  result  of 
some  awkward  slip — he  has  nine  other  men  to  aid 
him  in  that  effort.  But  it  also  brings  a  new  sense 
of  responsibility.  If  any  man  should  refuse  to  put 
his  feet  in  the  niches  cut  for  him  by  the  hands  of 
experience,  or  if  he  should  in  any  wise  move  reck- 
lessly, he  might  fall  in  such  a  way  as  to  dislodge 
the  man  behind  him  and  they  two  might  drag  the 
whole  group  over  the  precipice  or  start  an  ava- 
lanche which  would  sweep  them  all  away  to  sud- 
den death.  "  For  their  sakes,"  each  man  repeats 
to  himself,  "  for  the  security  and  welfare  of  the 
other  nine,  I  will  order  my  course  with  care  and 
conscience !  " 

And  we  are  all  thus  bound  together  in  families 
and  social  groups,  in  business  undertakings  and  in 
political  life,  in  educational  and  church  work.  It 
becomes,  then,  the  act  of  a  scoundrel  to  live  in  such 


288    SOCIAL  MESSAGE   OF  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

a  way  as  to  imperil  the  happiness  and  welfare  of  the 
whole  group  of  persons  whose  interests  are  firmly 
roped  in  with  his  own.  In  common  decency  he  must 
consecrate  himself  to  those  higher,  wider  ideals  held 
before  us  in  this  Gospel  of  the  kingdom.  If  the 
searching  implications  of  the  moral  solidarity  of 
men,  intensified  as  it  is  by  the  close-knit  relations 
of  modern  society,  can  be  held  before  the  minds  of 
people  steadily  and  winsomely,  until  they  have  be- 
come an  abiding  part  of  the  Christian  consciousness, 
it  will  add  to  the  vigor  of  this  motive  for  righteous- 
ness, in  some  cases  thirty,  in  some  sixty,  and  in  some 
a  hundred-fold! 

This  journey  toward  our  complete  and  permanent 
well-being  is  a  perpetual  journey.  We  are  pilgrims 
and  sojourners,  as  our  fathers  were,  and  our  great- 
grandchildren will  be  restlessly  engaged  in  the  same 
quest.  It  is  not  to  bring  about  immediately  some 
state  of  existence  which  will  be  final  and  satisfactory 
that  we  are  wrestling  with  these  problems.  It  is 
rather  to  gain  a  more  social  habit  of  mind  and  a 
more  equitable  rule  of  life,  to  level  up  the  pathway 
of  progress  and  to  make  the  rough  places  plain,  so 
that  all  flesh  in  its  perpetual  advance  may  know  the 
salvation  of  our  God. 

It  is  not  true  now,  nor  do  I  see  any  indications 
of  its  ever  becoming  true,  that  broad  is  the  gate 


THE   BEST   LINES   OF  APPROACH  289 

or  easy  the  way  which  leadeth  unto  life,  in  any  of 
its  more  worthy  forms.  There  is  no  sort  of  encour- 
agement given  us  that  the  idle,  the  shiftless,  the 
unprincipled  will  ever  inherit  the  earth,  no  matter 
what  type  of  industrial  system  may  be  in  operation. 
"  Strait  is  the  gate  and  narrow  is  the  way  " — the 
fool,  the  knave,  and  the  idler  cannot  enter  in 
thereat.  Men  and  women  who  are  looking  for  a 
new  heaven  and  a  new  earth  wherein  dwelleth  ease 
and  idleness  for  all  hands,  an  existence  untroubled 
by  the  necessity  for  continued  exertion,  are  doomed 
to  disappointment  here — and,  it  may  be,  hereafter  as 
well,  for  in  a  world  where  the  Father  has  worked 
hitherto,  works  now,  and  is  to  work  henceforth  and 
forever  more,  it  is  almost  certain  that  His  children 
will  work  also.  Those  who  are  giving  serious  atten- 
tion to  social  problems  are  not,  therefore,  beckoning 
people  forward  to  quiet  and  secure  ease — they  are 
rather  intent  upon  the  permeation  of  the  working- 
world  by  a  new  spirit,  making  all  these  employ- 
ments of  hand  and  brain  forever  new  through  a 
higher  type  of  character  placed  in  control. 

The  church  is  naturally  conservative  as  to  all 
projects  of  hasty  reform.  It  directs  its  efforts  main- 
ly to  increasing  the  amount  and  enlarging  the  con- 
tent of  that  righteousness,  individual  and  social, 
which  constitutes  its  major  study.  It  seeks,  indeed, 


290    SOCIAL  MESSAGE   OF  THE   MODERN   PULPIT 

to  quicken  and  strengthen  human  sympathy  with 
want  and  pain,  but  it  must  seek  still  more  to  deepen 
also  the  sense  of  equity  and  justice  which  shall  serve 
over  wide  areas  to  decrease  the  occasion  for  such 
charitable  efforts.  If  it  can  steadily  exalt  the  spirit- 
ual above  the  material  values  until  that  just  ap- 
praisement shall  become  an  abiding  part  of  the 
moral  consciousness  of  our  race;  if  it  can  promote 
an  intelligent  and  insistent  good-will  among  men  as 
the  one  informing  principle  capable  of  producing 
a  stable,  prosperous,  and  joyous  society;  if  it  can 
impress  upon  the  heart  of  mankind  the  fact  that 
there  is  a  will  of  God  in  all  these  industrial  matters, 
which  must  be  ascertained,  obeyed,  and  realized  be- 
fore we  can  stand  right  with  Him;  and  if  it  can  dis- 
cover and  lay  bare  to  the  faltering  will  those  deeper 
sources  of  motive  for  social  effort,  then  the  church 
will  be  rendering  an  incomparable  service.  This 
does  not  involve  such  a  knowledge  of  economics  or 
of  political  action  as  would  qualify  it  for  statesman- 
ship, but  it  does  involve  a  fuller  understanding  of 
the  real  content  of  the  Gospel  and  a  fearlessness  in 
making  thorough-going  application  of  its  principles 
to  modern  conditions. 

If  in  this  course  of  lectures  I  have  seemed  to 
lay  disproportionate  emphasis  on  the  work  of  bring- 
ing up  the  rear  guard,  on  aiding  the  ill-equipped, 


THE  BEST   LINES   OF  APPROACH  291 

on  making  the  path  smoother  for  feet  which  are 
lame  and  tired,  and  have  not  seemed  to  give  suitable 
attention  to  the  work  of  developing  and  training 
those  who  need  nothing  but  an  open  field,  a  free 
fight,  and  no  favor,  I  would  remind  you  of  this  abid- 
ing truth:  The  honor  and  growth  of  those  to  whom 
God  has  given  ten  talents  cannot  be  more  directly 
or  permanently  secured  than  by  the  enlistment  of 
that  superior  ability  in  the  service  of  others  less 
abundantly  endowed.  It  was  said  of  One  whose 
native  endowment  so  far  transcended  what  is  usual, 
even  among  men  of  eminence,  as  to  produce  a  wide- 
spread conviction  that  He  was  more  than  human 
— "  He  counted  it  not  a  prize  to  be  on  an  equality 
with  God,  but  took  upon  himself  the  form  of  a 
servant,  and  humbled  himself,  and  became  obedient 
unto  death,  yea  even  the  death  of  the  cross !  Where- 
fore " — along  this  very  line  of  self-sacrificing  use- 
fulness— "  God  has  highly  exalted  him  and  given 
him  a  name  which  is  above  every  name."  There 
is  nowhere  to  be  found  a  more  direct  road  into  the 
supreme  development  of  personality  than  the  road 
already  mapped  out  in  the  life  of  Him  who  alone 
was  competent  to  call  Himself  eternally  "  The 
Way." 

When  you  leave  these  quiet  halls  you  will  go  out 
into  a  troubled  world  to  preach  the  Gospel  of  the 


292    SOCIAL  MESSAGE  OF  THE  MODERN   PULPIT 

kingdom.  You  will  go  out  as  divinely  commissioned 
heralds  of  that  nobler  order  of  life  ruled  by  the 
divine  Spirit.  When  you  look  up,  you  will  see  that 
peace  and  harmony  are  already  established  in  those 
celestial  regions  where  the  heavens  declare  the  glory 
of  God  and  the  morning  stars  sing  together  in  an 
endless  procession  of  praise.  But  when  you  look 
out  upon  the  restless  life  of  earth,  you  see  a  mass 
of  confusion  and  disorder  which  appalls  you.  The 
world  of  material  things,  where  all  is  passive  and 
obedient  to  the  divine  will,  is,  indeed,  a  cosmos, 
but  the  world  of  free  and  intelligent  spirits,  many 
of  them  unresponsive  and  resistant,  is,  in  great 
sections  of  its  life,  as  yet  a  chaos,  waiting  for 
the  Spirit  to  move  upon  the  face  of  its  troubled 
waters. 

You  are  called,  as  ministers  of  Jesus  Christ,  to 
be  the  effective  instruments  of  the  divine  purpose 
in  the  shaping  of  that  highest  of  all  its  visible  ex- 
pressions, a  society  of  free  men  acting  together  in 
the  spirit  of  intelligent  good-will.  If  you  strive  to 
make  your  own  adequate  contribution  to  the  realiza- 
tion of  that  great  ideal,  you  will  find  it  a  task  which 
will  steadily  tax  all  your  powers  to  the  utmost.  It 
will  demand  the  entire  consecration  of  those  abili- 
ties which  have  here  been  trained  for  noble  service, 
and  it  will  throw  you  back  unceasingly  upon  the 


THE  BEST  LINES  OF  APPROACH  293 

aid  and  guidance  of  Him  whose  vast  design  it  is  to 
make  this  redeemed  humanity  His  dwelling-place, 
and  to  shape  the  rightly  ordered  life  of  men 
into  a  holy  city  where  He  shall  reign  forever  and 
ever. 

THE   END 


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